Mind of the Heart: Jealousy
by Itachi-21
Summary: Olivia, Emma, and Lindsay are three normal high school girls. However, the arrival of the Akatsuki changes their lives entirely. Someone is out to get Lindsay, and they'll stop at nothing to destroy her. Can the Akatsuki, Olivia, and Emma protect their best friend?
1. The Thing That Started It All

_**Hey, everyone! After writing fanfictions about the Akatsuki in the shinobi world, I decided to start one about them in OUR world. I'm going to be using the daily events in my life to create the story. Hope you guys find it amusing!**_

Characters:

Olivia is an average-height girl with brown hair and brown eyes. She is a strong teenager who is very protective of her friends. However, she doesn't use violence unless there is no other option; she prefers to use words to fight.

Emma is slightly shorter than Olivia. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and enjoys making other people laugh. A very outgoing person, she almost never gets angry with others, especially not her best friends.

Lindsay, the creative and clever Asian, is usually the target of gibes because of something that happened four years ago. She seems normal on the outside, but her eyes are always hiding something.

* * *

"Hey, Tobi! Keep up, will you?" Deidara snapped at the masked annoyance.

"Just a moment, Senpai!" Tobi's voice was muffled. Deidara whipped around to see Tobi sticking his head down a hole in a tree.

"What the hell are you doing, hmm?"

Tobi withdrew his head from the knothole, clutching something in his hand. "Look what I found, Deidara-Senpai!"

Deidara looked at the object in Tobi's hand. It looked like an orb of some kind. It was completely black and about the size of a smoke bomb. There was an eerie glow to it, and Deidara found himself unable to tear his eyes away.

"Deidara-senpai, should we take this to the Akatsuki hideout?" Tobi's question jerked Deidara back to his surroundings.

"Yeah, let's take this to the others, hmm," Deidara agreed.

* * *

"And you found this in a knothole in a tree?" Pein asked Tobi and Deidara.

"Yes, Leader-sama! Isn't it pretty?" Tobi was bubbling over with ecstasy. Deidara rolled his eyes.

"It's a magic object that will help us take over the world!" White Zetsu joked.

"**Shut up. This is a serious matter,**" Black Zetsu growled. Kisame and Hidan chuckled slightly at Zetsu talking to himself.

"Oh! The orb is glowing!" Tobi's excited voice brought all eyes to the now-glowing orb on the dais.

The sphere was indeed glowing. The light emanating from it grew brighter and brighter until all the Akatsuki members were forced to shield their eyes. Outlined against the light, an unfamiliar town appeared, growing steadily larger. When it stopped growing, the light vanished as well, and the confused Akatsuki found itself standing on a foreign street. However, Tobi was missing.

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

I sighed, looking up at the clouds through the patches of leaves. Summer was so hot, but I haven't been outside in ages. I was bored with the house anyway. My parents were on a business trip to China, so I was home alone. Luckily, I knew how to cook and stuff.

Suddenly, I heard voices drifting from the alley that was near my resting spot. They sounded threatening; I got up quietly and tiptoed over. I saw a person wearing a strange, black cloak with red clouds on it. Gosh, how could he wear that in this heat? The person also wore an orange swirly mask, and he was cornered by three other guys.

"Well? You want to have a piece of us?" The lead bully asked. His cronies cracked their knuckles threateningly.

"Now, now, fellas. I only asked you what's up. What's wrong with that?" The masked man (I could tell he was a man from his voice) attempted to soothe the three bullies. No luck.

"What's wrong with _that_? What's wrong with THAT?" The lead bully smirked in an evil way. He turned to his followers, "Let's show this dunce what's wrong with that."

I couldn't take it anymore. Now don't get me wrong: I'm usually a very non-violent person. I don't hit anyone unless there was no other choice. But these three were going to beat up, maybe kill, this poor guy. I stepped into full view, making the bullies step back.

"Three on one; that's not very fair, is it?" My voice was perfectly calm; I had taken martial arts class. I could take these three on easily.

"Stay out of this, bitch," the leader snapped.

"I don't think so." I advanced a few steps.

"Then, we'll just have to teach you a lesson, too." They charged at me.

I sighed and went into fighting mode. I ducked the first blow from one of the accomplices. I don't know his name, so I'll just call him Number One. I slammed my fist into Number One's stomach. He let out a cry of pain and immediately dropped to the ground and didn't get back up. The second accomplice (Number Two) hesitated as he reached me. Taking advantage of the moment, I landed a powerful kick into his chest, throwing him into the leader.

I grabbed the masked man's hand, the two of us bolted out of there.

* * *

A couple blocks away, we finally skidded to a halt, panting.

"Thank you so much for rescuing me, uh…?" The man faltered slightly: he was asking for my name.

"Olivia," I said between gulps of air, "My name is Olivia Wolansky."

"Well, thank you so much for rescuing me, Olivia!" He looked around at the buildings. "By the way, where are we?"

"This is Highland Park, New Jersey," I answered, looking at him quizzically.

"Highland Park, New Jersey? Is that a new village?"

"What?" My turn to be confused.

He turned to look at me through that single eyehole in his mask, but before he could say anything, another voice echoed from the other side of the road.

"Tobi!"

"Crap. My friends are here!" The masked man, Tobi, sounded terrified. I followed his gaze to see nine more people dressed in black and red cloaks walking towards us.

"Tobi! Where have you been this entire time?" A blonde-haired man looked really pissed.

"Tobi is sorry, Deidara-senpai! Tobi got lost, and Olivia saved Tobi!"

"Olivia? Who's Olivia?" A blue-haired woman asked.

All eyes fell on me, making me blush slightly from all the attention. "Um…hello," I said.

An orange-haired man stepped forward. I shivered inwardly at all of his facial piercings.

"Thank you for helping Tobi," he said, "My name is Pein. It is a pleasure to meet you, and I was wondering if you could help us."

Pein? His name was seriously Pein? I didn't say anything about his name out loud. Instead, I asked, "What do you need help with?"

"It's a long story."

I glanced at the sky. The sun was already starting to go down. I had been outside longer than I thought. Eyeing the group of ten suspiciously, I thought perhaps I should invite them into my house, but I didn't know them well. After a couple minutes of hesitation, I finally made up my mind.

"Would you like to come to my house and tell me everything?"

Well, I wasn't about to tell them to get the hell away from me when they were lost. And don't ask me how I knew they were lost; it was all written on the faces.

_**Chaos is going to break out soon as the Akatsuki try to adapt to modern, non-ninja life. Reviews are welcomed, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**_


	2. Let's Get to Know Each Other

_**Hey, everyone. FYI: I'm altering some of the Akatsuki's personalities so if you think that some Akatsuki aren't acting like themselves, you know why! **_

"Wait," I held up both hands, "You're telling me that you are from a different world and a black crystal ball brought you here?"

"That is what I said," Pein clarified.

We were sitting in my living room (don't worry, my house is big), and he was telling me about how they got here. I'm not sure I believe him, but it explains why they were lost and their strange clothes.

"Olivia, Leader-sama isn't lying. Leaders don't lie," Tobi tried to reassure me, but it wasn't working too well.

"Ok, can I have your names first?" I wanted information I could actually understand.

"Pein."

"Konan."

"Kisame."

"Tobi!"

"Kakuzu."

"Hidan."

"Deidara, hmm."

"Zet**su**."

"Itachi."

"Sasori."

Crap, their names are weird, too.

Luckily for me, the doorbell rang. A couple Akatsuki members jumped and looked around wildly for the source of the sound. Tobi, however, was bouncing up and down saying, "Oh, what a pretty sound! Do it again!"

"Excuse me for a moment," I said, getting up and heading for the door. Opening it, I saw one of my best friends, Emma Weaver, standing there holding a large book.

"Hi, Olivia! I came to return your book!" she said in that uplifting voice of hers.

* * *

~Emma's POV~

"Perfect timing, Em!" Olivia exclaimed, grabbing my arm and dragging me into her house, "Come help me figure something out!"

She led me into her living room, and I was shocked to see ten strangers sitting on the sofa and floor. Naturally, my instinct kicked in, and I screamed, "What the hell?"

Olivia gave me a look, and said to the strangers, "This is Emma, one of my best friends." Then, she introduced all ten of them to me.

"They say that they come from a different world, and they need help getting back," she finished.

"We told you, we DID come from a different world!" The man with silver hair, Hidan, snapped.

_Whack! _Olivia had thrown a book at Hidan, hitting him right on the face.

Hidan jumped up angrily, and he probably would have attacked Olivia if Pein didn't stop him.

Olivia ignored Hidan's attempts to get to her and turned to me. "What do you think?"

I bit my lip. "I dunno actually. Why don't you call Lindsay?"

"Good idea." She walked over to the wall phone in the kitchen. "What's Lindsay's number again?"

I sighed. "Did you lose your phone?"

"No. It's upstairs, and I don't feel like walking up there to get it."

"Fine. I'll call her." I took out my phone and dialed Lindsay. After 30 seconds of listening to the phone attempt to reach Lindsay, I gave up and pocketed it. "She's not answering."

"Then, we'll just have to try again tomorrow." Olivia had found a box of Cheez-Its and was munching on the snack.

I walked into the living room where others were still sitting. "Ok, all of you. We haven't been able to decide anything yet, and if you really did come from another world, we guessed that you wouldn't have a place to stay. It's been decided that you could stay in Olivia's house if you want!"

A furious scream came from the kitchen. "EMMA!"

"Olivia, you have, like, a total of four bedrooms in this mansion of yours!" Ok, the mansion part was a little exaggerated, but she did have four rooms. "You have a room all to yourself, there's your parents' bedroom, and then, there are two spare bedrooms!"

"But I didn't say they could stay." Olivia came in from the kitchen.

"They have nowhere else to go. My house isn't big enough, and we're not going to make them stay at Lindsay's aunt's house."

Pein cut into our argument. "It is all right. We don't want to trouble anyone."

Olivia had become quiet: she was thinking. I took a deep breath and said the last thing that could possibly persuade her, "Lindsay would want you to let them stay."

That did it. "Fine," Olivia sighed, "They can stay in this house until they find a way to go home."

* * *

"Kakuzu, Kisame, Hidan, and Tobi can have this room, and Pein, Itachi, Sasori, and Deidara will be in that room." I pointed out the two bedrooms to both groups. They filed into the rooms, some of them muttering thanks.

I turned to Konan. "You can sleep in Olivia's room." I took her to said room, opened the door, and pointed to the bunk bed. "Olivia sleeps on the bottom, so you'll have to take the top bed."

"Thank you, Emma." Konan smiled slightly.

"No problem," I said, heading back downstairs, "If you need anything, just call."

Arriving in the kitchen, I saw Olivia sitting at the table with her head in her hands. She looked up as I entered and asked, "Can you stay over?"

I blinked. "Why?"

"I-I don't think I can take care of all ten of them alone." I felt bad. Olivia hated admitting weakness.

"Sure. I'll bring my things tomorrow, and I'll try and bring Lindsay, too." She smiled at that.

I glanced at the backyard. "Is Zetsu comfortable with the garden?"

"Yeah. He loves it."

I placed my hand on the doorknob of the front door. "I better go now. My mom will be furious if I stay out too long."

Olivia gave me a hug. "See you, and maybe Lindsay, tomorrow."

_**I know all of you are wondering why Lindsay has such an influence on Emma and Olivia, but you'll have to wait until later in the story to find out why. Reviews are appreciated and stay tuned for the next chapter!**_


	3. Shopping With Akatsuki Isn't That Bad

~Olivia's POV~

The sound of the phone ringing woke me up from a deep slumber. Silently cursing it, I quickly slid out of bed, rearranged my pajamas, and dashed into the kitchen. Entering the kitchen, I stubbed my toe against a leg of a chair.

"Fffffffuuuuuu…!" I clamped my mouth shut to prevent myself from screaming the f-word.

Now hopping on one foot, I seized the phone and tried to keep the pain out of my voice. "Hello?"

"Liv?" Emma's voice came from the phone.

"Yeah?"

"Can I head over now? My mom said it's fine if I sleep over for a while."

"Sure. Is Lindsay coming?"

"My mom is going to stop by her aunt's house and pick her up, and we'll be going over together."

"Great! I'll see you soon."

"Bye."

I went back into my bedroom and woke up Konan. Telling her to get dressed, I quickly dug out a shirt and jeans and tossed it to her. I pulled on shorts and another shirt. While Konan headed downstairs, I went to the other two bedrooms, knocked on the doors, and made sure that the inhabitants were awake before following Konan.

"Why did you w-w-wake us up so early?" Kisame complained, yawning.

"You're going to meet the third person today," I announced.

Deidara gave me a strange look. "What third person, hmm?"

"Lindsay." I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, you mean the person you and Emma were talking about last night?" Tobi sounded excited. "Is she funny like Emma, or is she tough like you?"

"Just wait 'til you meet her," I answered, smiling a little at Tobi's enthusiasm, "She'll be here in about five minutes."

"What about food?" Hidan asked.

"You'll get breakfast after Lindsay and Emma get here."

"They're both coming?" Konan asked.

The doorbell rang just as I said yes. I practically sprinted to get the door.

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

I tilted my head, listening to the thumps of Olivia's feet on the floor. "I told you she'd run to get the door."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Fine."

The door flew open, and Olivia stood there. "Finally!" she exclaimed.

"We're not that late," I pointed out.

"We're not even late," Emma added.

Ignoring our statements, Olivia picked up the suitcases and pushed us inside. "They're here!" she yelled, closing the door behind her.

I looked at Emma, who said, "You'll see who she's talking to in a sec."

Brushing my black hair out of my eyes, I followed Olivia and Emma into the living room, where ten people were sitting.

* * *

"Well, what do you think?" Olivia asked me about half an hour later. I had just had the story told to me, and it made sense to some degree.

"May I see the orb?" I addressed Pein since he seemed to be the leader.

Pein turned to the others. "Did any of you grab the orb before we were transported here?"

They all shook their heads.

"If it was the orb that brought you all here, you might need the orb to take you back," I murmured.

"Great! So we have no damned way to get back!" Hidan said.

"You believe them?" Olivia asked again.

I tilted my head from side to side for a bit. "Yes, I guess I do."

* * *

"Try this on," Olivia handed Sasori a few pieces of clothing from her father's closet, "I think these will fit you well."

Sasori nodded his thanks and went to the bathroom to change. A couple minutes later, he came out wearing the new clothes. Olivia nodded, "They do fit you well. We're going to go out and get more clothes later, but you can make do 'til then." She turned back to the closet, "Next!"

* * *

"Is there anything that can be done about your eyes?" I asked Itachi, "People in our world don't have eyes like that, and it will scare them."

Itachi closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, I saw that his eyes had become a normal onyx color. _How the hell did he do that?_

"Well, you're fine now. Just make sure to keep your eyes how they are now and you'll be ok."

* * *

"No, Deidara! You are not allowed to bomb anything in this world!" Emma was trying to teach a couple Akatsuki members on the laws in this world.

"Why not? Explosions are art! Are you saying that art isn't allowed in this world, hmm?"

"I'm sure your explosions are really good art, but in this world you are not allowed to bomb anything, burn anything, kill anybody, or threaten anybody. That is a rule."

"Deidara, just do as she says," Pein ordered as Deidara opened his mouth to argue some more.

* * *

~Kisame's POV~

We were going to the store now. I think Olivia said it was a place called Wal-Mart. Never heard of it. I walked beside Lindsay. She was staring straight ahead and didn't talk. She reminds me of Itachi sometimes.

Suddenly, she said, "Crap."

I started. "What?"

"I left my phone at my aunt's house."

"You look so calm despite having realized that." It was true. She was still staring ahead with that calm expression on her face and hadn't even stopped walking.

"Oh, yeah. I sometimes find it hard to express my emotions."

_Just like Itachi_. I told myself again. In an attempt to make friendly conversation, I asked, "Emma called you last night. Why didn't you answer?" Hopefully, she wouldn't think I was being nosy.

She didn't. "I had my phone on silence because I was practicing violin."

"What's a violin?"

"It's a musical instrument made of wood," she explained, "I'll show you when we get home."

Tobi hyper voice drifted back from the head of the crowd. "Wow! It's so big. Look, Deidara-sempai!"

"I can see it, hmm," Deidara said.

* * *

~Emma's POV~

I turned to face everyone else. "Since there are far too many of us to travel in one big group, we're gonna split up into three smaller groups."

"Oh, oh! Tobi wants to go with Emma!" Tobi jumped up and down with his hand in the air.

"Sure," I said, "Let's see…Itachi, Konan, and Kisame can go with Lindsay. Tobi, Deidara, Zetsu, and Kakuzu will come with me. Pein, Hidan, and Sasori will be with Olivia."

They divided into their assigned groups with a bit of muttering, but there weren't any major disagreements.

* * *

~Itachi's POV~

We followed Lindsay down rows and rows of objects for sale. I'm surprised she knows where to go. I'm already getting muddled by the maze. Konan and I gaze at the things on the shelves, trying to figure out what they're supposed to be used for. Kisame and Lindsay are chatting about this world.

Suddenly, a voice calls us from behind. "Hey, guys!"

"Tobi, you're supposed to be with Emma," Lindsay said.

"Emma and Deidara were arguing about the rules of this world, so Tobi wandered and got lost. Luckily, Tobi found you!"

"Yeah, it's easy to get lost in here if you've never been here before." Lindsay continued walking.

"Did you get lost?" I asked.

She turned to look at me, blinked, and faced forward again. "No, actually. I've always been good with directions, and I had string in my pocket that I used to make sure I didn't get lost."

"Lindsay is so smart!" Tobi cried, hugging her to death. She looked a little uncomfortable but allowed him to give her the hug. Lindsay's hair parted slightly from Tobi's arm, and I saw a scar on her neck.

I narrowed my eyes, staring at the scar until her hair covered it again. I looked away, feeling a little embarrassed that she probably caught me looking. If she did, she didn't say anything about it. I wanted to ask her about the scar, but something told me that if she wanted other people to know, she wouldn't hide it and not talk about it.

Music came from Lindsay's pocket, startling us. She pulled out her phone and smirked. Flipping it open, she said, "Hey, Em. I've got your little runaway here. Do you want to speak to him?"

She held the phone out for Tobi and gave him instructions on how to use it. He took the phone and screamed, "Tobi is sorry, Emma! Tobi is a good boy! Tobi just wanted to explore the store and Tobi got lost! Tobi is really sorry!"

Some other shoppers who were in the store turned and gave us a strange look. Lindsay wrestled the phone out of Tobi's hands and started explaining the situation to Emma.

"Tobi, I don't think you are supposed to scream into the phone," Kisame said. Privately, I agreed with him, but I said nothing.

"Tobi is even sorrier now!"

Lindsay snapped her phone shut and said, "Tobi, Emma said that it's all right and that you can stay in this group for the rest of the day."

"So Emma's not mad at Tobi?"

"She's almost never angry with anybody, so no, she is not mad."

"Tobi is so glad!"

* * *

~Deidara's POV~

"I don't understand why I can't bomb anything, hmm! Even if it's against this world's rules, it's not like I can get caught, hmm!"

Emma said nothing. She merely picked out another shirt and gave it to Kakuzu to hold. I don't know how she can manage to ignore me when I'm practically shouting in her ear. If I had my detonating clay with me, I would blow this store apart just to see her reaction.

"How much are these going to cost?" Kakuzu asked, eyeing the six shirts and two pairs of pants in his arms.

"Not much. They're on sale," Emma reassured him, pointing to a sign only she could understand.

"Good 'cause I want to save money."

"You're not paying for it anyways."

Emma's phone beeped. She flipped it open, typed something, and said, "Olivia's group is already done shopping. Let's hurry."

"Can that thing explode, hmm?" I asked, pointing to the phone.

Silence.

"Stop ignoring me, hmm!"

"Can you **shut up?**" Zetsu cut in.

* * *

~Sasori's POV~

"Why the hell do we have to wait here? They can walk home themselves!" Hidan asked Olivia.

"Because we are waiting here and that is that. We came together and we're leaving together!" Olivia snapped.

Hidan opened his mouth to say more, but Pein interrupted him, "Hidan, we're waiting here. That is enough."

"Emma's group is coming out right now," I added, pointing at the doors.

Emma immediately went to Olivia, saying, "I had to listen to that blonde, bomb-obsessed person blabber on and on about bombing the buildings in this world the entire time!"

"I've had it worse," OIivia cast a dark glance over at Hidan, "Where's Tobi?"

"He's with Lindsay. Apparently, he got lost and Lindsay found him."

"I didn't find him; he found me." Lindsay walked out from the store, her group following her. Tobi was happily swinging two shopping bags. "And I had to keep him away from the maternity section while the others found their clothes."

"Are we going back now?" I asked Olivia. She nodded and announced, "Alright. Let's head home."

_**Longest chapter ever written for any story. Whew. I'm exhausted. As always, reviews are appreciated and stay tuned for the next chapter!**_


	4. Two More Oddities

~Pein's POV~

We were about halfway home when Lindsay spoke to Olivia and headed into a store that we were just passing by.

"Where's she going?" I asked Olivia.

"She just needs to buy some violin accessories," she answered. Seeing my confused look, she added, "Knowing what a violin is won't help you get back to your world so don't worry about it."

I nodded, dropping the subject. The rest of the walk continued with some of the Akatsuki chatting among themselves, and those who weren't talking were staring at the strange buildings and people.

As the house came into view, I noticed a black-haired girl standing at the front door. "Who's that?"

Olivia glanced over at the person. "Sendy!" she shouted, running over. Sendy wheeled around in surprise and found herself in a choking hug from Olivia, made worse when Emma ran over and tackled them to the ground.

Some chuckles came from the Akatsuki, and I couldn't help but smile a little bit.

"Tobi wants to join the group hug, too!" Without waiting for consent, Tobi jumped onto the three girls.

* * *

"Is Lindsay with you guys?" Sendy asked after she had been introduced to all of us.

"She went to the music store to buy extra violin strings. Do you need her for something?" Olivia poured Sendy a glass of orange juice.

"My viola needs to be tuned…"

"You know, Sendy, why don't you just learn to tune your own strings?" Emma piped up from the doorway.

"If I try, I would just end up breaking the strings."

"Well, break the strings and then ask Lindsay to fix them," Emma suggested.

"Sendy, has something happened to your viola strings again?" Lindsay's voice came from the front hallway.

"Lindsay!" Sendy squealed as Lindsay walked into the kitchen. She started babbling away in a different language. I exchanged confused looks with the rest of the Akatsuki.

"What are **they saying**?" Zetsu asked.

"They're both speaking in Chinese," Emma explained.

I didn't know what Chinese was, but if it didn't help us get back to our world, I didn't care. I liked it better in the shinobi world, where I knew how everything worked. Of course, I would rather die than admit this in front of the other Akatsuki members.

"You're going out again?" Olivia's voice brought me back to the present. Lindsay was at the front door with the girl Sendy.

"I'll be right back after I tune Sendy's viola for her," Lindsay pointed out, "Although I would prefer it if she would just learn how to tune it herself."

They left. Olivia and Emma both sat down at the table, looking somber. "We want to discuss something with all of you," Olivia announced.

* * *

~Emma's POV~

Right after Olivia finished her sentence, the doorbell rang. "This place is becoming a party house," I joked as Olivia got up to get the door. She muttered something under her breath as she opened the door.

Another black-haired girl stood in the doorway. "Mimi!" Olivia exclaimed.

Mimi smiled. "Hi, Olivia. I just got back from the Caribbean, so I decided to stop by and say hi."

"Mimi!" I shouted, running into the hall.

"Emma!" she squealed just as loudly. I grabbed her by the arm and led her into the kitchen where the Akatsuki was sitting with confused looks on their faces.

Pointing at Hidan, I said, "That's Hidan, the male version of you, Mimi!"

Hidan gave me a blank look. "What the hell are you talking about, woman?"

I raised my eyebrow in a my-point-proven way.

"Who the hell is he?" Mimi asked, eyeing Hidan in a suspicious way.

"I'm Hidan. You got a problem with that?" Hidan stood up.

"Well, if you're gonna swear at my friends, then yeah, I have a problem with that," Mimi snapped.

Deidara, Kisame, Zetsu, and Tobi's heads were swinging back and forth between Hidan and Mimi. Pein's eyes were narrowed, Konan looked a little anxious, and Kakuzu stared at Hidan. Itachi and Sasori merely looked unconcerned with the building tension. Olivia bit her lip.

I quietly snuck into the bathroom and filled a large bowl with cold water. Sneaking back, I heard Mimi say, "You probably can't even beat me in a damned fight!"

I turned the corner just in time to see Hidan lunge at Mimi. Not giving them the chance to fight, I took the bowl and threw the water onto them, screaming, "Stop!"

Both of them froze, water dripping from their hair. Kisame, Deidara, and Tobi start laughing at the looks on their faces, and I permit myself a tiny grin. The grin faded as Hidan transferred his glare to me.

"You're going to pay for that, bitch!"

He lunged, but before he could reach me, someone punched him in the chest, throwing him back. Looking around, I saw that Lindsay had come back. I don't know how she always appears with perfect timing.

* * *

~Mimi's POV~

It's a good thing Lindsay got back in time to hit Hidan. I wouldn't have reached him in time. God, I damned hated Hidan the moment I laid eyes on him. He looks insane.

Lindsay didn't even seem fazed by the fact that she just hit him. She merely walked to the refrigerator and took an orange. "Hi, Mimi," she said as she walked past me. Her footsteps headed upstairs.

Hidan would probably have gone after her if the tan person hadn't restrained him. Come to think of it, I didn't even know who these people are. Luckily, Olivia and Emma introduced them all.

* * *

"So how was the Caribbean?" Olivia asked.

"It was really different and unique," I replied, "I saw a green and black poison frog and a Caribbean fruit fly. They scared the hell out of me since they just jumped out of nowhere."

"That's cool," Emma said, "Did you see anything else?" Man, she was wrapped up in this.

"There was also a tropical gecko called Hemidactylus mabouia," I remembered.

"What kinds of food did you eat?" Olivia interrupted.

"Um…there was this dish that consisted of rice, peas, and fish; I think it was called Anguilla or something."

"We don't fucking care what this Ang-whatever is!" Hidan snapped, "I just want to get back at that bitch for hitting me!"

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

The moment those words left Hidan's mouth, us three girls turned to stare at him.

"You did not…" Emma snarled. This is one of the only times she got angry.

"…just call Lindsay…" I continued with as much venom in my voice as possible.

"…a bitch!" Mimi's voice was murderous.

"Hidan, you're about to be dismembered," Kisame was enjoying the hostility.

"I'll sacrifice them all to Jashin!" Hidan hollered.

Just then, Lindsay's voice came from upstairs. "Will you people shut up? I'm trying to concentrate here!"

Silence fell over the kitchen (Hidan only kept quiet because Pein was glaring at him).

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

When I came back downstairs, Mimi had already left. Hidan and Kakuzu were now having a glaring match, and Emma was having a pleasant conversation with Tobi about yo-yos. Olivia jumped up when she saw me.

"Lindsay, what do you think about having the Akatsuki go to school with us?"

Emma looked up, eyes brightening. Oh wait. Emma's eyes are always bright. Some Akatsuki members looked at us with confusion and some looked interested. The rest looked bored.

"What's school, hmm?" Deidara was one of the interested ones.

"It's the place where you can learn how to do stuff," Olivia answered.

"Can I…?" Deidara started asking.

"No, Deidara! You cannot blow up the school!" Emma interrupted loudly. I couldn't help laughing a bit at that.

"Why the hell are you asking us about school? We already know stuff!" Hidan said.

"Olivia meant stuff from our world," I specified.

Pein leaned forward. "Tell us about it," he invited.

* * *

"So now that we've explained the basic stuff, does anyone actually want to come?" Emma asked, looking hopefully around the table.

"Tobi wants to go!" Of course.

"I think I'll give this a shot, hmm," Deidara grinned. Uh-oh. "Danna, you should come too," he suggested to Sasori.

"Whatever," Sasori shrugged.

"I would like to go," Itachi volunteered.

"Anyone else?" Olivia glanced at the others.

"I can't go. What would they think of my blue skin?" Kisame gestured to himself.

"I don't fucking see why I should go," Hidan grumbled.

"No, thanks," Kakuzu refused.

"I'm half black, half white. I can't go. **Besides, I like the plants in your backyard**," Zetsu declined the offer.

"I will not go," Pein stated without giving a reason why.

"Konan?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I would prefer not to go."

"So four of them will be going. Since school is starting in two weeks, we should go out and get their supplies tomorrow," I suggested.

"Done," Olivia grinned.

"Cool," I headed back upstairs to finish marking my violin music, and yes, that was what I was doing earlier when I shouted at them to be quiet.

_**Yup, you read right. The Akatsuki is going to school! Well, some of them. Reviews are appreciated, and thanks for reading!**_


	5. You Don't Know Jack About School

A couple days later…

~Emma's POV~

"I've got my schedule!" I cried, waving it around excitedly.

"What classes do we have together?" Olivia and I compared schedules.

"We have science, world history, gym, and English together!" I bounced a little, "That's half the schedule!"

"Lindsay, what do you have?" Olivia asked.

"Pre-calculus, English, science, history, orchestra, gym, Spanish, and Study hall," she recited her schedule in order of the classes.

"We've got Pre-Calc, World History, and Spanish together," I said happily.

"And we have only World History together." Olivia was slightly disappointed.

"Well, there's still lunch if you want to count that as a class." Lindsay was now trying to help Tobi and Itachi figure out their schedules.

"How does this work?" Sasori asked Olivia.

"The first column tells you which period you have the class. For example, if it says one, that means you have that class first thing when you get to school," Olivia explained, "The second column tells you which class you have. The third column is the room number and the fourth column states whether or not you have it for the entire school year or just half of the year."

"Why do we only have some classes for half the year, hmm?" Deidara was peering at Emma's schedule as though it would help him understand the whole thing.

"There are so many classes to take that if some of them weren't half of the year, you wouldn't be able to get through them all," Emma said, staring at Deidara's schedule, "We have Sculpture, Gym, and Science together."

"Deidara," Lindsay called from where she sat on the couch, "Try to restrain yourself from blowing stuff up. Such actions will get you expelled."

"What's expelled?"

"It means you can never go back to this school," Olivia chimed in.

"Tobi wants to know, has anyone ever been expelled from this school?"

"Well, there was this incident two years ago that got this kid expelled." Lindsay was now writing something on Itachi's schedule to help him figure it out.

"What happened, hmm?"

"The kid who was expelled stabbed this other kid with a knife," Lindsay said nonchalantly as she handed Itachi his schedule and picked up Tobi's.

An awkward silence fell in the living room. Hidan could be heard swearing at Kakuzu upstairs.

"Don't say that so calmly!" Olivia threw a pillow at Lindsay, which Lindsay elbowed away.

"You shouldn't resort to violence, Olivia," Lindsay joked, "Here, Tobi."

"Thank you so much, Lindsay!" Tobi gave Lindsay a killer hug. From across the room, I saw Itachi narrow his eyes at something on Lindsay's neck.

Tobi released Lindsay and looked at what she wrote. "Ummm...Lindsay? What does this say?"

I could tell Lindsay mentally facepalmed.

* * *

"Linz," I whispered once the three us of were alone, "I think Itachi saw the scar on your neck."

Olivia looked at us sharply and threw a wary glance at the kitchen where the four guys were still poring at their schedules. Lindsay absentmindedly rubbed her neck at the place where the scar was.

"What are you gonna do if one of them asks you about it?" Olivia became worried.

"I will just say it's from an accident," Lindsay answered, "That way, I won't be lying and I can still give them an answer."

"What if they ask what happened?"

"It was a car accident and a large piece of glass cut me," Lindsay's tone said that she wanted no more debating on the matter.

I succumbed to her will, but Olivia asked, "Are you okay?"

I knew what she was asking about and so did Lindsay. "I'm fine," Lindsay said.

The matter was pushed to the back of our minds.

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

On the morning of the first day of school…

"Tobi! Stop running around and eat your breakfast!" I yelled, slamming a bottle of maple syrup onto the table.

"OMG! Tobi's going to school!" The hyper masked person ran into the kitchen, sprinted once around the table to the annoyance of most Akatsuki members, and would have dashed right back out if Lindsay hadn't appeared and caught him by the neck.

She forced him down into an empty seat, took the roll of tape that was on top of the refrigerator, and taped him to the chair.

Kisame laughed and raised his hand for a high five, which Lindsay accepted. Emma came into the kitchen, dragging her feet and yawning. I grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a little shake to try and wake her up.

"Come on, Em. Wake up," I said.

Emma yawned in my face, and I yawned back. Lindsay burst into silent laughter. I had this weird problem with yawns. If I see anyone yawn, I yawn. If I fake a yawn, a real yawn immediately follows. Apparently, Lindsay found it extremely amusing.

"Lindsay, if you don't shut up, I'm going to spray you with orange juice," I threatened. She stopped laughing immediately. Darn.

"What do we do when we first get to school?" Itachi's question brought the kitchen to a complete silence with the exception of Tobi struggling against the tape.

"We go to homeroom," Lindsay replied, "All four of you have the same homeroom as us so just follow me, Emma, and Olivia. Ems, wake up!" She snapped her fingers in front of Emma's face.

Snapping your fingers in front of Emma's face always works when waking her up. But I can't snap, so I just let Lindsay do the work.

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

"Right, let's review the rules before we step into the school." Olivia stopped us at the entrance.

"Olivia, they'll be fine," I sighed.

"I'm just being cautious."

"She's being fussy," I muttered to Emma as I sat down on the steps. Olivia didn't hear me.

"So remember. No fighting, no running, no cursing, no screaming, no talking when the teacher's talking, be polite, no pushing, no calling names, no threatening, no taking off your shirt because of the heat…" she went on and on. The boys were looking uncomfortable (with the exception of Tobi), so I decided to save them.

"Olivia, two minutes until homeroom!" I screamed, interrupting her rant. She cannot stand being late.

Predictably, she turned around and ran into the school, forgetting about making sure the four guys knew the rules.

"You're welcome," I said to the confused Akatsuki before heading inside myself.

"Is it really two minutes 'til homeroom?" Emma asked.

I showed her my phone. It said 7:35. "Nope. Five more minutes."

"Olivia's gonna kill you for that."

"Whatever. I saved the guys from an embarrassing lecture."

Emma laughed. "I'll show them to their lockers. You go face Olivia's wrath."

_**I was laughing as I wrote this; it took me about an hour to finish this chapter. Anyway, reviews are appreciated and thanks for reading!**_


	6. Rumors and Tobi's BIG Mistake

_**I'm sorry I updated so late! My family moved, so I was busy packing and unpacking. Also, I couldn't work on this in the car. Please forgive!**_

~Itachi's POV~

"Tobi, you'll follow Olivia to your first class since both of you have Chorus with Mr. Jung," Emma directed.

"OK," Tobi agreed happily, "What's Chorus?"

"It's the class where you have to sing," Lindsay said with her head resting on her hands.

"Oh, Tobi's good at singing! Listen!" Tobi took a deep breath.

"Er, no, that's ok," Olivia said hastily, cutting Tobi off. Deidara snickered. If Tobi didn't wear his mask, we would have seen the hurt on Tobi's face.

"How come you don't want to hear Tobi sing?" he asked in an injured voice.

"I'm sure you're a very good singer, Tobi, it's just…" Olivia tried to think of a reason not to let Tobi sing.

"Singing isn't allowed during class," I attempted to save her. The three girls looked at me, and upon eye contact, knew what I was up to.

"But isn't Chorus a class?" Tobi asked.

"Chorus, Orchestra, and Band are the only exceptions," Lindsay explained.

"What are Orchestra and Band, hmm?" Deidara thought this was a lot of information to take in at a time.

"Band is…" Lindsay began, but Emma cut her off with a glare.

"Band is MY class, Linz, I'll explain Band. You're the violin expert; you explain Orchestra!"

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Fine, geez. Orchestra is the class where you play a string instrument. The director is Ms. Feng."

"And Band is directed by Mr. Colmon. It's the class where you play wind, brass, or percussion instruments!" Emma chirped.

I felt more confused than before band and orchestra were explained. Sasori and Deidara felt the same way. As for Tobi, he didn't behave any differently when he was confused so it wasn't a big deal.

The bell rang, and all of the students in the room hurried out to first class.

"Right. Good luck, all of you. Don't forget the rules, and be nice!" Olivia waved before leaving the room with Tobi. Emma gave us an encouraging smile while Lindsay nodded.

* * *

I entered the World History classroom and sat down in an empty seat. Many people who were already there turned to stare, making me a little uncomfortable. Still, I kept my head up and did my best to look calm. I already met the teacher, Ms. Wilson, on the day Olivia, Emma, and Lindsay registered us Akatsuki members. Sasori sat down next to me.

A rustling on my other side caught my attention, and I turned around to a see a red-haired girl sit in the seat on my right. She gave me a friendly smile and asked, "Are you and your friend new to this school? I haven't seen you around before."

I nodded while Sasori stared curiously at the girl. She gave him the same smile that she gave to me and said, "My name Myrah. Who are you guys?"

"I'm Sasori and he's Itachi," Sasori gestured to me.

"Well, nice to meet you. I hope you like this school. We do have some freaks here but…" her voice trailed off.

"Freaks?" I couldn't help asking.

"Crap. I shouldn't have told you that," Myrah sighed, "But maybe I should warn you just in case."

Sasori and I leaned in a little closer to hear her as she lowered her voice. "Have you met a Chinese sophomore girl called Lindsay?"

I blinked and Sasori nodded. Myrah continued, "She's one of the biggest freaks around."

"She seemed normal when we met her," Sasori objected.

"She only seems that way on the outside. But on the inside, in here…" Myrah pointed to her head, "…she's already cracked."

I wanted to ask for more information, but the bell rang to signal the beginning of class. I had no choice but to leave the topic of Lindsay alone. However, I couldn't help thinking about the scar on her neck and wondered if it was related to this rumor.

* * *

~Sasori's POV~

Finally, the end-of-class bell rang. "Have good day, guys, and I will see you tomorrow," Ms. Wilson dismissed the World History class.

I gathered up my things, gave Itachi a nod of farewell, and headed for French.

* * *

Olivia was already in the room by the time I arrived. "Glad to see you found the room." She patted the desk next to her. I sat down.

"Did I keep anyone waiting?" I couldn't help asking.

She looked at me weirdly. "What are you talking about? The bell hasn't even rung yet."

"Sorry." I shook my head. "I just hate waiting for others and keeping others waiting."

"No matter." She thumped me on the back; nearly making my head hit the desk. "Relax and just enjoy the day."

The bell interrupted our conversation, and we both turned to face the front of the room where Ms. Havis stood.

"Bonjour, étudiants (1)," she said, smiling at us. _What?_ I glanced at Olivia. She gave me a wink, telling me not to worry.

Ms. Havis let her gaze float around the classroom and I stiffened as it landed on me. "Looks like we have a new student," she said, walking up to me, "Comment t'appelles (2)?"

I threw another panicked glance at Olivia, asking for help. She leaned in a little and whispered, "She's asking for your name." She quickly told me how to answer that.

"Je m'appelle Sasori (3)," I tried.

Ms. Havis nodded. "Don't worry, Sasori. I'll get you caught up in the basics of French and soon, you won't need Olivia to whisper in your ear."

Olivia and I both blushed slightly.

* * *

~Sendy's POV~

"Emma, shouldn't you be in Band instead of hanging out in front of the Science room?" I asked.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Band's right across the hall, Sendy, don't worry so much. You should be more like Lindsay!" She gestured to Lindsay, who was leaning against the wall between us.

"You should worry a little more," I retorted just as a screaming blur flew past me.

Silence fell as the three of us (and everyone else in the hallway) stared after the running person. "Was that Tobi?" I asked, disbelief filling my voice.

A second yellow blur shot after the first one, yelling, "You're dead, hmm!"

"Was that Deidara?" Emma asked, interested.

Two more blurs followed. "What the hell are they doing?" Lindsay had gotten off the wall to watch. "I seriously hope they have a good excuse for running in the hallway and trampling other students."

"Olivia's gonna be pissed," Emma sang, dancing on the spot.

* * *

~Deidara's POV~

"Senpai!" Tobi called from the other end of the hallway as I placed my hand on the door to the gym.

I groaned inwardly before turning to face him. "What?" I struggled to keep my voice under control.

"Tobi saw Deidara-senpai's art in the Spanish room!"

"My art…in the Spanish room?" I was caught off guard. I haven't even been to the Spanish room yet. How could my art be in there? I haven't even created any art since I came to this world.

"Tobi brought it to show Senpai! Look!" The masked man took out a lopsided owl. The owl had nicks and chips everywhere! This…thing was considered art? And this masked man was stupid enough to mistake it for MY art?

I couldn't contain my anger any longer. "Tobi…" I growled.

He started running. I chased after him, passing Sasori and Itachi along the way.

* * *

"Why the hell are you two in the chase, hmm?" I yelled back to Sasori and Itachi.

"It's all your fault, brat!" Sasori shouted back, dragging Itachi with him.

I snorted. I didn't care what I did to Sasori, but I was going to get Tobi for his insult to my art.

"You're dead, hmm!" I shouted at Tobi as I ran past three girls. For a split second, I thought they looked familiar, but I quickly pushed that thought away as I continued my pursuit for Tobi while running away from Sasori at the same time.

Tobi turned a last corner and dodged into a room, slamming the door behind him. I skidded to a halt in front of the door and started banging on it.

"Tobi, come out from there, hmm!"

"Tobi is a good boy! Why does Senpai want to hurt Tobi?"

I kicked the door in frustration. "Don't act stupid, hmm! You insulted my art!"

Sasori and Itachi caught up to me (Itachi still being dragged). "Brat, you are going to pay," Sasori snarled while Itachi massaged his neck.

"I'll pay after I deal with Tobi, hmm," I continued to try to open the door.

"Deidara, if I were you, I would…" Itachi started to say.

"Shut up, Uchiha!" I snapped.

Suddenly, the door flew open, and I nearly fainted when I saw who it was.

The principal was holding Tobi by his shirt collar.

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

I focused on my sketch of the teacher's desk, making every line as accurate and realistic as I possibly could. Frowning slightly, I paused in my work to erase a line and try to fix it.

A tap on my shoulder made me look up. My teacher smiled at me. "Principal Garner wants to see you in her office," she whispered in my ear.

Shit. That could only mean two things.

* * *

Taking a deep breath, I turned the knob on the principal's door and walked in.

Deidara, Tobi, Sasori, and Itachi sat in front of a very angry principal. Of course, I became very angry as well the moment my eyes landed on them. However, I restrained the urge to yell at them and focused on what Principal Garner had to say.

"You're Olivia Wolansky?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," I answered, shooting the four guys a death glare. Deidara and Tobi flinched, Sasori muttered something that sounded like "Uh-oh," and Itachi became just slightly paler.

"I found these four attempting to enter the girls' bathroom," Principal Garner explained frostily.

I couldn't help it. My jaw dropped and I turned to gape at the accused. "You what?" I asked incredulously.

"It wasn't on purpose, hmm!" Deidara was on the defensive.

"Then tell me what happened!" I snapped, getting more and more pissed with every passing second.

"Tobi insulted my art, hmm, so I chased him around the school! For some reason, Sasori-danna was chasing ME, and he was dragging Uchiha with him. Tobi hid in a room, so I banged on the door to try to get him to come out…" Deidara said.

"And the room happened to be the girls' bathroom," I finished nastily. I faced Principal Garner again. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but they have never attended a school in America before. They do not understand the rules."

"Even if they didn't go to school in this country before, I find it hard to believe that the school they previously went to allowed this kind of behavior," Principal Garner sat down at her desk, eyeing the four guys with dislike.

"That's the thing. They were all home-schooled before," I lied, "This is their first time in a public school."

Principal Garner looked at me for a little longer and sighed. "Very well. This will be the only time they will be forgiven for this. I trust you to make sure this will not happen again," her voice became stern.

"Yes, ma'am, and thank you very much." I motioned for the Akatsuki to get up and leave. The four of them filed out as quickly as they could.

"You…!" I snarled once we had left the office.

"Tobi is sorry, Olivia, Tobi didn't know the room was forbidden!" Tobi sobbed, flinging himself on the ground.

"I will be telling Emma and Lindsay about this. And Pein, too, once we get home," I added.

The looks of fear on the Akatsuki's faces were enough for me. I spun around and headed back to Drawing class.

* * *

These are the French translations for Sasori's French class. The credit goes to my friend, Olivia, for helping me with that part!

1. Good morning, students

2. What is your name?

3. My name is Sasori.

_**Hey, guys. Just so you know, I will be posting the approximate release dates for future chapters on my profile. Please remember that the dates are APPROXIMATE, so don't get confused if the chapter doesn't come out on that specific date. The release dates for my other stories (Akatsuki's Legend and The Uchiha Legacy) are also listed there.**_

_**Reviews are greatly appreciated, and thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!**_


	7. Buy the Gang and Get a Food Fight Free!

_**WARNING: This chapter contains highly amusing material that could make the reader choke, wet his/her pants, or laugh uncontrollably. Please take care to use the bathroom, make sure you're not drinking anything, and brace yourself for the next five minutes of hilarity. Thank you.**_

~Emma's POV~

The lunch bell rang. "Yes!" I screamed, pumping my fist in the air. More than half the class turned to stare at me, but I didn't care. I shoved all my stuff into my backpack and practically ran out of the room.

When I arrived in the cafeteria, Olivia was already sitting there eating a sandwich. For some reason, she looked really mad.

I plopped down next to her. "What's wrong?" I asked although I felt that I already knew.

"The boys got themselves in trouble with the principal," Olivia growled oh-so-fearsomely.

"What happened?" I took a bite from my pizza.

"Tobi pissed off Deidara somehow so Deidara chased him around the school. Tobi decided to hide in the girls' bathroom, where the principal was."

I choked on my food. Olivia glared at me, but being the awesome friend she was, she still thumped me on the back.

Once my throat was clear, I asked, "How did Itachi and Sasori get in trouble?"

Olivia shrugged. "They chased Deidara around."

"So Itachi and Sasori were chasing Deidara, and Deidara was chasing Tobi?"

"You can think of it that way if you want."

"What are you thinking of it as?"

"Four idiots who are going to be in big trouble when I tell Pein."

I laughed again, and Olivia's scowl twitched. I laughed even harder, and eventually, Olivia gave in and grinned.

The four boys came into the cafeteria, glancing around nervously. Once I caught their eyes, I waved them over. Tobi ran over and reached across the table to give me a hug. "Tobi was a good boy, Emma, just like you and Olivia and Lindsay asked!" he cried.

I exchanged a look with Olivia. "Olivia told me a very interesting story, Tobi," I teased.

"Oh, no! Tobi didn't mean to! Tobi is sorry! Tobi was a bad boy!" Tobi screamed, making the heads of other people turn to stare.

"It's ok, Tobi. As long as you don't do it again," I patted his head. Olivia gaped at me for a little, but then shrugged and took another bite from her sandwich.

A couple seconds later, Mimi, Sendy, and Tia walked into the cafeteria holding their lunches. I immediately stood up and waved excitedly to them. The three came over, and Tia sat down next to me only to have me pull her up again.

"You four," I waved my hand in front of their faces to make sure I had their attention, "This is Tia. She is also a really awesome person, so be nice to her and she'll be nice to you. Also, she loves to tease people so watch out."

"Hi, Tia! Tobi is a good boy!" Tobi gave Tia a big hug. Tia grinned and hugged him back before giving him a jab in the side, making him jump and squeal.

"Now, now, Tia. Be nice to the newbies," Mimi scolded jokingly.

"Where's Lindsay?" Sendy asked, looking up and down the table.

"Why is it always Lindsay that you're looking for?" Olivia asked curiously.

"Because she understands me, and I like her," Sendy answered, eyes now fixed on the entrance to the cafeteria.

"Ahem." Mimi cleared her throat.

Sendy froze. In an instant, Mimi had Sendy in a headlock saying, "You were saying?"

"Aaaahhh! I'm sorry! Mimi understands me, too!" Sendy wailed, struggling to free her head. Mimi chuckled before releasing Sendy.

Pretty soon, Lindsay came in through the entrance with an Asian boy, who I recognized to be Peeranat. She and Peeranat were "siblings" on Facebook. Well, they do kinda look alike, but it was still weird.

Olivia stood up. "Lindsay, get over here! There's someone pining for you!"

Lindsay raised an eyebrow. She turned and waved goodbye to Peeranat before heading over and sliding into her seat next to Sendy. "What?"

"I said someone's pining for you," Olivia repeated.

"And who might that be?" Lindsay laid her arms on the table.

"TOBI!" Tobi yelled as he pounced on Lindsay for a hug.

"Holy…!" Lindsay seized the edge of the table to prevent herself from falling to the floor. Most of the people sitting around the table chuckled with the exception of Itachi and Sasori. They just smiled.

"No, Jess! Pancakes are considered bread, not cakes!" Esder's exasperated voice stole the attention of all but Lindsay and Tobi.

"But if pancakes aren't cakes, then why are they called pancakes? And aren't cakes bread?" Jess scurried to keep up with Esder's long strides.

"Oh, my god, Jess! Just because they have the word 'cakes' in their name does not mean that they really are cakes!" Esder plopped herself down next to Olivia. "Hi," she said to the rest of us. Then, she paused as she saw the four boys. Staring at them, she asked, "Who are you?"

"These are Itachi, Sasori, and Deidara," I said, pointing to them in that order.

"And this one is Tobi," Lindsay huffed, still struggling to free herself from Tobi's clutches. Sendy grinned and hugged Lindsay, too. "Not you as well! Get the hell off!"

"Lindsay's a very huggable person, so no," Sendy objected, clinging on even tighter.

Some of us snorted into our food from the look of terror on Lindsay's face.

"Sendy, if you don't let go, I'm never gonna help you with viola again," Lindsay threatened. Sendy squeaked and released her immediately. Lindsay turned to Tobi, "Tobi, be a good boy and go eat your lunch."

"Tobi is a good boy!" Tobi said happily as he skipped back to his place at the table. Sasori rolled his eyes while Deidara gaped at Lindsay.

"How did you do that, hmm?"

* * *

~Tia's POV~

I eyed the four new students critically. They seemed normal enough, and they fitted in with our group. I liked Tobi the best; he was so funny. As I watched, Tobi picked up a French fry and threw it. Unluckily, Mimi was the one who got hit.

"What the fuck did you just throw at me!" she yelled, angrily scooping up some mashed potatoes with her spoon and flinging it at Tobi.

Tobi ducked and the mashed potatoes hit Deidara on the face.

"What the hell was that for, hmm?" he shouted before picking up a handful of peas and aiming it at Mimi. However, since he threw PEAS, they scattered in midair, showering the rest of the table.

"You didn't…" Esder snarled, shaking her shirt to release a pea that had gone under it.

"You got peas in my tomato soup!" Jess snapped.

"Food fight!" Tobi screeched happily. He picked up another fry and rubbed it into Emma's hair. The latter screamed and proceeded to dump water all over Tobi and Sendy.

Deidara flung some more peas into the air, this time annoying some people from neighboring tables. More food was thrown around, and before I knew it, the whole school had gotten into the food fight! I had managed to get away from the table in time with Itachi and Sasori, and we were hiding under a table.

"Does this usually happen?" Sasori asked.

"No, only on the first day of school," I answered, craning my neck to see what was going on.

Olivia was trying to get some people to stop when a cup of grape juice was thrown at her face. In her anger, she forgot about stopping the fight and picked up a tray laden with gravy and dumped it on the nearest kid, who happened to be Myrah. Sendy was hiding underneath a different table, screaming for help. Jessica and Esder worked together, throwing strips of bacon into the crowd. Their clothes were splattered with an unidentifiable gunk. Emma and Mimi had turned over a third table, using it as a shield as they hurled cookies at their enemies. Tobi was just running around, screaming at the top of his lungs as food flew at him. Deidara had broken into the ice cream machine, and was mashing the melted ice cream into everyone's faces. But wait, where did Lindsay go?

As if on cue, Lindsay re-entered the cafeteria, holding a long tube filled with red stuff. "Oh, crap. How did she come up with that?" I muttered weakly. Itachi and Sasori poked their heads out to see what happened.

Lindsay took aim with the ketchup tube and squeezed. A jet of ketchup shot through the air, hitting anyone who was stupid enough to stand in its way. And Lindsay was laughing! She never struck me as a person who would enjoy a food fight! Suddenly, a spray of ketchup hit me.

"My hair!" I shrieked, covering up my head. Itachi and Sasori had jumped back in time to avoid the unintentional attack.

When, I looked back out again, Lindsay had disappeared. A couple moments later, she came back with the tube of mustard! Oh, my god. Please let someone come soon!

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

As I prepared to fire the mustard, I heard the cafeteria door slam. I turned my head to see the principal marching in, looking as though she was ready to murder us all. As she opened her mouth to yell, an egg flew through the air and hit the principal's chest.

Esder had this guilty and shocked look on her face and her hadn was hovering in midair, so she was the culprit. Jess, who was still next to her, tried to stuff another egg in her hand, and when Esder didn't accept it, Jess looked around. She, too, noticed the principal and froze on the spot.

Gradually, the chaos in the cafeteria died down as the principal started getting noticed. Once everything had settled down, she spoke.

"I don't know what has gotten into you all today. I know that this is the first day of school, but that is not a reason for you all to behave like animals! Look at what you've done!" she shrieked, gesturing at the food splattered floor, tables, and chairs, "You will ALL be staying after school today to clean this up!"

Nobody dared to complain. Breathing heavily, she turned and left the cafeteria. Silence lasted for a moment a longer. Then, someone piped up, "Well, the fight was fun while it lasted."

The crowd broke out in laughter.

* * *

"Stand still, Emma," I said, "This ranch dressing is already dried and you're making it even harder for me to get it out by moving."

"Sorry, I'm still exhilarated from the fight," Emma said, attempting to stop moving.

Olivia giggled from next to the sink, where she was washing her own hair (thank God). "I admit that it was fun."

"Never said it wasn't." I rubbed Emma's hair with the wet paper towel. "There, Emma. NOW you can move."

Emma immediately left the bathroom to join the four guys (who all kindly agreed to wait outside the bathroom while the three of us washed our hair).

"The guys got in trouble with the principal today," Olivia said, her face bent over the sink.

"I guessed. They looked terrified when the principal came to stop the food fight," I replied, examining my clothes for signs of food.

"Want to know what they did?"

"Not really."

"You'll laugh."

"Fine then. But later."

"I won't forget." Olivia smirked through her wet hair.

_**Hopefully, no one had an accident? Good.**_

_**I would like to thank Olivia for helping me come up with the food fight scene. Luv ya, Liv! *big hug***_

_**Reviews are appreciated, and thanks for reading!**_


	8. A Typical Afternoon

~Deidara's POV~

I mentally banged my forehead against my desk. Why, oh why, did the subject of math have to exist? My head hurt from staring at the numbers and there are still 20 minutes left of class! I put my head down on the desk to try and ease the migraine that was surely gonna develop. If bombing wasn't prohibited, I would blow up my paper.

Someone poked me. I raised my head, ready to snap at whoever it was.

Esder stared at me. "Do you need help?" she asked.

I gaped at her. When I met her at lunch, she hadn't seemed like someone who would offer help to other people, but then again, you shouldn't judge people by their appearances.

"Yeah, that would be great, hmm," I replied. My headache was already feeling better.

* * *

~Itachi's POV~

The bell rang as I finished putting away the last of the printing blocks. Snatching my bag from my chair, I left for math. Unfortunately, I was thinking so hard about this world, I took a wrong turn and ended up in an unfamiliar part of the school. I think 'crap' would be an understatement right now.

As I'm wandering around trying to find a familiar hallway, I hear music coming from one of the classrooms. Curiosity takes over and I peer in through the window on the door.

I saw a girl with spiky, shoulder-length black hair playing what I recognized to be the violin. Lindsay had shown her violin to the Akatsuki on Kisame's request. Lindsay herself was sitting next at this long black object with tiny black and white rectangles spread across it. She moved her hands across the small rectangles, pressing down on some of them. I guessed that she and the girl who was playing the violin were practicing together or something; Lindsay mentioned that two different instruments could play the same song.

The music was slow and flowing, but it had a touch of sadness. I found myself enjoying it and completely forgot that I was lost.

"Ms. Feng, I'm going to the bathroom!" Lindsay's voice jolted me out of my daze, and I realized the music had stopped. Footsteps sounded as Lindsay climbed the stairs. I threw myself off the door just in time to prevent getting hit in the face.

"Are you lost, Itachi?" Lindsay grinned at me, not looking surprised that she just found me behind the door. I realized that she must have known I was here.

"Did you see me?" I asked.

She nodded. "You're supposed to be in math, right?"

"Yeah."

She beckoned me to follow her and led me through the hallways, stopping outside a room where a woman was standing at the front of the classroom, talking. Lindsay knocked softly on the door, getting the woman's attention.

"Hey, Ms. Finklin. I found a lost student of yours wandering the halls," Lindsay joked, giving me a nudge into the room.

"Well, that was very kind of you, Linz," Ms. Finklin smiled. She turned to me. "Itachi, right?"

I nodded. "Well, you can have a seat right over there." Ms. Finklin pointed to an empty seat next to a black-haired boy.

"Thanks," I muttered to Lindsay.

"No prob," she replied, "Bye, Ms. Fink."

* * *

~Sasori's POV~

"In Study Hall, you usually do any homework that you have," Sendy explained, "And if you don't have any homework, you can go find a book to read." She pointed to the bookshelves that lined the media center."

I nodded and headed for the bookshelves. Sendy pulled me back. "You can put your bag down on a chair first instead of lugging it around with you," she said.

"What if it gets stolen?" I asked, eyeing the other occupants of the media center suspiciously.

"It won't," Sendy reassured, "This isn't the ninja world. But I can keep an eye on it if you want," she added, "I have some homework to do."

"Oh. Ok then." I shrugged off my bag and handed it to her. It dragged her down.

"What do you keep in here, Sasori?" she wailed as she struggled to pick it up. I couldn't resist a smirk.

"Books." I picked it up again and carried it to a vacant chair.

* * *

After school…

"Wheee! This is pretty fun!" Emma squealed as she swung from the ceiling. The cafeteria staff had attached swing-like objects to the roof so students could clean the ceiling.

"Emma, swing after you clean!" Olivia said, wiping a table.

"Emma, I want a turn!" Tia whined, following Emma as the latter swung around.

"I need the hose," Lindsay called from the top of the ladder next to a window. Esder chucked the hose up to Lindsay, who caught it and took aim at Emma.

"No! Don't spray me! I'll be good!" Emma begged. She immediately stopped swinging and started wiping the ceiling. Lindsay laughed and turned the hose to the window.

"Is there any faster way to clean this, hmm?" Deidara grumbled from under the table Mimi and Emma had used as a shield.

"Afraid not," Olivia scrubbed at a stain.

"Olivia, you still haven't told me what the boys did to piss off the principal." Lindsay turned off the hose and tossed it back down to Esder.

"Oh my God, can I tell her? Please? Please? Please?" Emma pleaded with Olivia.

"Go ahead." Olivia dipped her rag in the bucket of water next to her.

"Ok," Emma swung next to Lindsay, "So Tobi pissed off Deidara…"

"It wasn't on purpose! Tobi is a good boy!" Tobi cried from the other side of the room.

"…so Deidara started chasing Tobi around the school…"

"You insulted my art, hmm!" Deidara accused.

"…and for some reason, Itachi and Sasori started chasing Deidara…"

"Brat, I insult your art all the time," I stated.

"…so Tobi hid in the girls' bathroom, where the principal was."

"I think I can guess what happened after that, Em," Lindsay said between giggles.

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

"What did you guys think of the classes?" I asked on our way back to my house.

"I hate math, hmm," Deidara said.

"Of course. Math, the abstract study of topics encompassing quantity, structure, space, change, and other properties," Lindsay sighed, "Also known as Mental Abuse to Humans for most people."

"Good definition," Emma said. "I don't really like math either, Deidara, don't worry," she added.

"I like math," Lindsay said.

"How could you like math? It's so confusing and exhausting! It requires too much brain power!" Emma gestured dramatically.

"It's not so bad if you're meticulous and take your time with the problems," Lindsay countered.

"I take my time and I still find it hard."

While Lindsay and Emma were arguing about math, Deidara and Sasori had started a debate on art.

"Art is a bang, Danna!"

"Wrong, brat, art is eternal."

"Jesus Christ," I muttered.

"Olivia?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah?"

"Is there an instrument that looks like a long rectangular box with tiny rectangles scattered on it?"

"A what?" I frowned.

"I saw Lindsay playing something that looked like a box with black and white rectangles on it today."

It dawned to me. "You must be talking about the piano."

"Piano?" Itachi murmured, getting used to the foreign word.

"Yeah. Linz's really good at it. Better than the violin, but the violin is harder to play than the piano." I shrugged, "It's a pity she quit piano lessons."

"This world has some really different things," Itachi commented.

"Well, yeah. Have you ever heard of the multiverse theory?" I asked.

Judging from the confused look on his face, he didn't. "The multiverse theory basically says that there are multiple universes in this galaxy," I explained, "If it's true, then the Akatsuki must belong to a different universe."

"I see…" Itachi nodded slightly. His next topic of discussion nearly made me freeze on the spot.

"I heard rumors about Lindsay in school today."

I froze (ok, fine. I did freeze). "What did they say?" I asked warily. Itachi cast me a curious glance.

"They say that she's a freak."

I started seeing red. "Who told you this?"

Itachi ignored my question. "Is it true?"

"Hell no, it's not!" I snapped, walking away. I think I knew who it was. God, she hates Lindsay just because Lindsay beat her in music skills.

"Liar." Itachi caught up with me. "Do the rumors have to do with the scar on Lindsay's neck?"

I was seething. "Can't you mind your own business?"

"It is my business if one of my friends has hurtful rumors about them floating around." Itachi was adamant.

I was speechless. Itachi thought of us as his friends? He didn't seem like someone who trusts others when I first met him. "It's not my place to tell," I muttered, my anger dissipating, "Now can you tell me who was spreading these rumors?"

Itachi looked me in the eye. "Are you going to start a fight?"

"Probably not."

He stared for a moment longer. "It was Myrah," he finally said.

I knew it.

_**Hey, sorry I took so long to update. Busy with school and stuff. So anyway…this story is gonna be a sequel! I thought of the titles already (with a little help from Olivia). If you wanna know the titles, here they are:**_

_**Modern Akatsuki: Revenge**_

_**Modern Akatsuki: Fracture**_

_**Modern Akatsuki 2**_

_**Modern Akatsuki 2: Cursed**_

_**Modern Akatsuki 2: Sacrifice**_

_**Hopefully, you will read these as well once they come out!**_

_**Reviews are appreciated, and thanks for reading!**_


	9. Say Hello to Families and Linz's Wrath

~Emma's POV~

I was still arguing with Lindsay when we arrived at Olivia's house, except we were no longer talking about math. We were arguing about whether or not jelly and Jell-O was the same thing. Don't ask how we got from math to food, we're just special that way.

"I'm actually impressed that the house is still standing," Olivia grumbled, freeing herself from Tobi's grasp. Tobi was giving Olivia hug because Olivia called him a 'good boy.'

"Only 'cause Kakuzu tied Hidan up." Kisame appeared in the doorway.

I blinked. "Where'd he get the rope?"

Kisame laughed. "Kakuzu didn't use rope. He used his threads."

"You don't want to know," Konan added from behind him.

"Okay then…" Olivia stopped when she saw Lindsay walking away, "Linz, where you going?"

"I need to get my aunt to sign the class contracts. I'll be ba…"

"I nearly forgot! I need to go home, too!" I cut her off. Then, we both jumped as Olivia let out a mournful wail.

"NOOOOOOOO! My parents aren't home…" The Akatsuki looked freaked.

"Ummm, Olivia?" Lindsay asked.

"Yeah?"

"My aunt or Emma's parents could always sign it for you…"

"…oh."

In the end, the four guys came with us since they needed papers signed as well.

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

"Auntie, I'm back for a while!" I called as I pushed the door open.

"Need school contracts signed, don't you?" Aunt Helen appeared from the living room, smiling at the guests, "Who are the guys?"

"Itachi, Sasori, Deidara, and To…"

"Tobi is a good boy!" Tobi jumped on Aunt Helen before I could introduce them properly. Fortunately, Aunt Helen didn't mind the hug. In fact, she chuckled and hugged him back. They released each other and she studied the other three.

Suddenly, she reached out and clapped Itachi on the shoulder. Looking at him seriously, she said, "Itachi, I hope you treat my niece well. You are perfect for her."

"What the…?" I exclaimed, trying to hide my blush. Itachi just looked startled and uncomfortable. The others were laughing their heads off. "Oh, my god." I bonked my head lightly against the wall at my aunt's comment.

"Linz, you need a guy in your life." Olivia patted my back, trying to look and sound serious but failing miserably. Emma was choking on air since she was laughing so hard. I was so gonna beat them up later.

Aunt Helen wasn't done yet. "Oh, you two match perfectly with these two guys," she squealed. She was talking about Olivia, Emma, Sasori, and Deidara.

"Him?" Emma gasped at the same time Deidara said, "Her?"

Olivia glared at Sasori while Sasori merely looked bored.

My aunt nodded excitedly. "Oh, but this young man is left out." She ruffled Tobi's hair.

"It's ok! Tobi loves all of them!" Cue a terrifying group hug.

"Hell no, hmm!" Deidara flailed wildly.

"Brat, watch it!" Sasori snapped as Deidara accidentally stepped on his foot.

"Sorry, Danna!"

"Tobi, you have five seconds to let go," Olivia growled.

"Linz, jab him in the side. I can't breathe!" Emma pleaded. I gladly complied.

After all that racket died down and about half of us got our papers signed, we headed over to Emma's house.

"You know what, Linz?" Olivia asked, grinning.

"What?" I played along warily.

"Your aunt is on my list of top five favorite adults."

"Shut the hell up."

* * *

~Emma's POV (again) ~

"Is anyone alive?" I hollered as I flung open the front door.

"No!" my little sister's voice, dripping with sarcasm, echoed back to me from upstairs.

"Where are Mom and Dad?" I called.

"Backyard."

I was about to walk to the back door when I remembered I still had my shoes on. My parents would get mad if I trekked mud on the floor. I kicked my shoes off and threw open the back door.

"Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad," I said cheerfully.

"Hey, sweetie. Back for a visit?" Mom smiled at me.

"Yeah. Where's Dad?" I asked, looking around just to see him training the garden hose on me.

I screamed and shut the door just in time. I fled into the living room where the others were and hid behind Lindsay.

"What are you doing?" Lindsay stared at me.

"My dad is trying to spray me with the hose!" I grabbed the back of her shirt.

"What is it with you and water hoses?" Olivia mused.

After about another fifteen minutes, the rest of us had gotten our contracts signed and we headed back to Olivia's house.

"Hey, 'Liv," Lindsay said.

"Yeah?"

"You think your house is still gonna be standing when we get back?"

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

The next day during lunch, I was just sitting at my lunch table with my friends (including the Akatsuki) when suddenly, this tall, black-haired guy appeared in front of me. My eyes narrowed.

"Can I help you?" My voice was calm and cold as I spoke to him. Silence fell as everyone who knew this person turned to glare at him as well. The Akatsuki immediately picked up the tension and fell silent.

"Take me back," he demanded. God, his voice was as annoying as ever.

"Fuck no," I replied, leaning back to face him. Gary Liu was my ex-boyfriend, and I broke up with him after finding out he only wanted to date me to prove that he could get a girl anytime he wanted.

He leaned down so we were face-to-face. "Why not?"

"This is the fifth repetition. You are a waste of my time," I said the last sentence really slow so to make sure he understood.

Unsurprisingly, he raised a fist ready to hit me. Mimi shot up from her seat and seized his wrist, keeping a tight hold.

Gary glared at her. "Let me go, bitch," he snarled.

"I don't think so, jackass," Mimi countered.

Gary turned back to me. "Hiding behind your friends, are we?"

I stood up, but Lindsay threw out her arm, holding me back. I gave her a look that said 'let me kill him.' She shook her head, and I sat back down. Lindsay was about to take care of this with her words. I just hoped she wouldn't speak in Chinese since she tends to do that when she's really pissed.

Luck was not with me.

"你有什么话要说吗, 小妹?" Gary smirked.

"Do you have something you want to say, little sis?" Sendy immediately translated for us non-Chinese people.

"谁是你的妹妹?" Lindsay snapped.

"Who are you calling 'little sister'?" Tia decided to start a translating war with Sendy. Oooooo, this was gonna be good.

Lindsay kept talking. "你以为你是上帝吗? Olivia 已经告诉过你五次, 但也许你只是听太自大了. 她不喜欢你. 这里没有人喜欢你. 你走."

"You think you're God? Olivia already told you five times, but perhaps you're just too arrogant to listen. She does not like you. Nobody here likes you. Leave," Sendy and Tia translated as fast as they could, trying to beat each other.

Gary sneered. "Fine. I may not be able to have her, but I can easily find someone to replace her." He reached up as if to stroke Lindsay's cheek with his forefinger.

I instinctively lunged out of my seat and slapped Gary with my full strength. "Keep your filthy hands off her," I spat, letting my temper get the better of me.

I hardly noticed that we were the center of attention now. Mimi and Esder were standing in front of Lindsay, staring daggers at Gary. Emma's fist was curled around her plastic knife, looking as though she was ready to stab Gary with it even though it would have no effect whatsoever. Sasori was holding me back, and I didn't really appreciate it.

"Sasori, let me go! I need to teach this son of a bitch a lesson!" I snarled, struggling against his grasp.

"This is school. You told us that fighting was not allowed," he stated calmly, not even loosening his grip.

"I don't give a fuck. I will skewer this bastard until his blood runs clean!" The people who were sitting closest to our table were edging away now.

"Is that your new boyfriend?" Gary's eyes sparked with interest. Nosy person who deserved to die a painful death.

"No, he's not. You got any last words, prick, 'cause I'm sure I'm not the only one dying to beat the crap out of you," I hissed.

"She said it. Now get out of our sight." Sasori finally decided to be helpful.

Gary snorted before backing away. "You'll pay. All of you."

"You leave them alone, asshole! Your grudge is against me and me alone!" I yelled at his retreating back.

_**There's going to be a lot of time skips in this story cuz I just don't feel like writing every little thing that happens.**_

_**Special thanks to Olivia (again) for helping me come up with the character of Gary, even if it pissed you off. **_

_**Reviews are appreciated, and thanks for reading!**_


	10. Disasters Disasters Everywhere

~Sendy's POV~

"Guys, guys, guys!" I screamed running into Olivia's house with Mimi on my heels.

It was about a month later, meaning it was now the beginning of October. My favorite month. Want to know why? Because of…HALLOWEEN! But I didn't run all the way to Olivia's to remind everyone about Halloween. It was even bigger news.

Lindsay and Olivia looked up from where they were playing a card game called Spit. Emma, Deidara, Hidan, Esder, and Jessica popped out from the kitchen. Itachi paused in his meditation to stare at me as Sasori and Tobi halted in their wrestling match for one of Sasori's puppets. The other people just came down from upstairs, looking curious.

"Yeeees?" Olivia asked, dragging out the word.

"There's gonna be a HURRICANE!" I shouted.

"A freakin' big one, too!" Mimi added.

"We're all gonna die!" Esder shrieked dramatically. There was an awkward silence. Then, all the girls started laughing while the Akatsuki just gave Esder 'WTH' looks.

"Ah, Esder. You never fail to make me laugh," Lindsay said, "I win." She slapped the empty space on the table. Olivia gave Lindsay a glare, which Lindsay returned with an innocent, "Love you too, 'Liv."

"What's a hurricane?" Pain asked.

"A hurricane is a severe tropical storm with heavy wind and rain," Olivia answered while cleaning up the cards, "It is capable of flooding entire areas and blowing trees over."

"Never heard of that back in our world," Konan mused.

"Well, now you know," Emma mumbled around her mouthful of corn bread. She swallowed with great difficulty and said, "Should we go get candles?"

"Why do you **need candles?"** Zetsu asked.

"A hurricane could knock out the electricity for weeks," Lindsay explained, pulling her red orchestra sweater on, "When our power's out, we have no light, no heat, and we can't cook either."

"Then how are supposed to fucking live?" Hidan asked.

"Shut the fuck up and let us tell you!" Mimi countered. Those two argue like an old married couple.

"When exactly is the hurricane coming?" Tia asked from next to Kakuzu.

"Around Halloween," I answered.

"Halloween?" Sasori raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"We'll explain on the way to the Dollar Store," Olivia said, grabbing the keys.

* * *

~Mimi's POV~

"We've had hurricanes for three years in a row now," Emma said, skipping lightly down the sidewalk.

"There was Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Sandy, and now it's Hurricane Joanne," I counted off my fingers.

"Joanne? That's a nice name," Esder commented.

"Let's hope it's a nice hurricane and our power won't be gone for too long." Emma linked arms with Lindsay, trying to get the latter to skip with her. All she got was a strange look.

"Hurricane Sandy was wicked. Our power was gone for weeks, and I thought I was gonna die from no Internet." Esder linked her arm with Emma's, telling Emma that she was willing to skip with her.

"Oh, yeah. I was hoping you had gotten blown away," I joked.

"What did you just say, you heartless stone!" Esder unlinked her arm and started chasing me. I laughed like a maniac and ran ahead of the group with Esder on my heels.

"Stop, you two!" Tia's terrified scream turned on my alert system. Oh, shit! We were running straight for the road, and we couldn't stop because it was downhill and we were going too fast.

Suddenly, an arm wrapped itself around my waist and pulled me back while someone else yanked Esder away from the edge of the road.

"What is your problem?" Olivia yelled from behind me, "You could have gotten killed!"

Esder was apologizing to Lindsay, who stared at the road with a faraway look in her eyes.

"Hey, Mimi! Be more careful next time! If you die, I'll have nobody to argue with," Hidan said, grinning as he walked towards us with everyone else on his heels. The bastard was just glad for a chance to scold me.

"Is everyone ok?" Konan asked.

"We're fine," Olivia glanced at me and Esder before walking over to where Lindsay stood.

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

I clenched my hands, unable to tear my gaze away from the road. The near-accident had brought up unforgettable memories of what happened four years ago. My breathing quickened slightly.

Out of nowhere, Olivia punched my arm. Hard. I staggered into the telephone pole on my right.

"What the hell?" I snapped.

"Just making sure you're ok," she replied, giving me a look.

"Damn, girl. You look like you've seen a ghost! What happened?" Hidan barked. I wanted to punch him. Mimi did it for me.

"Shut up, tactless bastard," she growled.

"No, he's right," Itachi cut in. I flinched. Damn. "You act strange whenever you walk next to busy roads, many people at school call you a freak, and you have a scar on your neck. Are they connected, and did something happen in the past to make you this way?"

I froze as questions started coming my way. "You have a scar on your neck?" Kisame asked, incredulous.

"You're called **a freak, too**?" Zetsu said.

Konan approached me cautiously. "May I…?" she gestured to my hair, signaling that she wanted to see the scar.

I swallowed and nodded. She gently lifted up my hair to reveal the long scar that ran down the side of my neck. The Akatsuki stared in shock as the others looked panicked, trying to decide what to say.

"T-that's a bad cut there, hmm," Deidara stammered.

"We know, brat," Sasori replied.

Pain stood in front of me, resting a hand on my shoulder. "Lindsay, I am not trying to push into your personal business, and you have a right to not answer my next question. How did this happen?"

I took a deep breath, struggling to calm myself. "Four years ago, my parents, my brother, and I were in the car, heading to the movie theatre. We got into an accident, and a piece of glass cut me." That was partly what happened.

"What about your parents and brother?"

I turned my head away. "Dead." A single tear leaked out of my eyes.

Konan hugged me, followed by Kisame. Kakuzu and Pain patted my back awkwardly, as though unsure of what to do. Deidara and Sasori gave me sympathetic looks. Tobi practically squeezed me to death, shouting, "Tobi will be a good boy if it makes Lindsay happy!"

"Sorry," Itachi murmured. I gave him a hug to tell him that it was ok. He seemed slightly startled and stood awkwardly as other members laughed.

"Girl," Hidan grabbed my shoulders.

"Man," I replied, giving him an evil look. More laughter came from the bystanders.

He grinned, making me eye him suspiciously. "I think you and I can be friends!" he shouted, shaking my shoulders.

I kicked him in the shin. "Totally," I said.

"You know, her story is worse than ours. **We ate our parents**," Zetsu remarked.

"Don't tell us anything else!" Everyone shouted at the same time, with the exception of Hidan, who said, "What happened?"

We continued on our walk to the Dollar Store, chattering about natural disasters. However, I couldn't help feeling a slight twinge of guilt at something that I hadn't told the Akatsuki.

I was partially responsible for my family's death.

_**Let me think…do I have any announcements I want to make? Looks like I don't. Oh, wait, I do! Sorry if this chapter isn't funny or long or whatever. There will be plenty more hilarious incidents in later chapters. I'm laughing just thinking about what I have planned. Especially for when winter break rolls around.**_

_**Reviews are appreciated, and thanks for reading!**_


	11. Hurricane, Halloween, and Music

~Olivia's POV~

"We…seriously…bought…all…this…stuff…for…a…hurricane?" I puffed as I carried bags of food into my house.

"Yup," Emma said, dancing in carrying the lighter bags.

"Speaking of the hurricane that's gonna come at around Halloween, what should we be this year?" Sendy asked.

Silence fell as we scrutinized each other.

"Well, Mimi could go as a psychotic killer," Esder suggested.

"Excuse me?" Mimi glared.

"Oh, oh! Tobi wants to go as a lollipop!" Guess who said that.

"That's one figured out," Lindsay agreed, "Esder could go as a clown."

"Why a clown?" Esder asked.

"Because you make other people laugh."

"But I hate those fat and ugly red lips clowns have."

"Ok, ok. I was only suggesting." Lindsay rolled her eyes as some of us stifled our giggles.

"How about we go as the Nazgul from the Lord of the Rings?" Emma said, eyes sparkling.

"I like that," I said, nodding my head.

"Me, too," Lindsay said.

"Sure, why not?" Mimi shrugged.

"Yeah, the Nazgul! We'll get to carry around swords!" Tia jumped up and down.

Sendy, Esder, and Jess agreed as well. But there was a problem. There were nine Nazguls while there were only eight of us. Thankfully, Emma found an easy solution: her sister.

"We are nine!" I cheered. Turning to the Akatsuki who were staring at us weirdly, I said, "What about them?"

Emma walked over to Deidara and grabbed a handful of his hair. Deidara jerked away, saying, "What the heck, hmm?"

"The feel of your hair sometimes helps me come up with a costume," Emma explained, seizing his hair again.

"What if I don't want to go, hmm?"

"Too bad. You are going as a werewolf," Emma declared, moving on to Konan.

"A blond werewolf?" Jess clarified disbelivingly.

Emma shrugged. "There are mutations all the time. Konan, you're going as an angel," she added. Konan nodded and smiled at Emma. At least she was satisfied with her costume.

In the end, Sasori was going as a mutant killer-doll; Itachi, a vampire; Kisame, a human-shark hybrid monster; Hidan, a skeleton; Kakuzu, a zombie; and Zetsu, a mutant man-eating plant. Emma, however, was stuck on Pein.

"Arrgh, I can't think of what you should be…" Emma muttered, staring at Pein in a murderous way that was starting to scare him.

"Just let him go as a mage or something. He doesn't have to be scary," Lindsay coaxed. Emma had taken such a long time to figure out Pein's costume that all of the groceries had been put away and the other five girls had gone home.

"But I want him to dress up as something that matches him," Emma whined. I snickered as a carrot popped into my mind.

"Like what? A carrot?" I burst out laughing at Lindsay's suggestion, especially since it was what I was thinking.

"No. I'll go as a mage," Pein intervened.

"There you go, Em," I chuckled. Lindsay shook her head as she headed upstairs.

* * *

~Itachi's POV~

Throughout the whole school day, I was worrying about what a vampire looks like. Lindsay had reassured me that it was nothing embarrassing, but I couldn't help feeling a little apprehensive. I don't want to feel humiliated in front of the rest of Akatsuki. I fretted so much that I didn't hear Myrah call my name until the eighth time.

"Itachi?" I snapped out of my stupor.

"Yes?" I wondered what she wants. She looked nervous and was blushing.

"U-um, well. I-I was th-th-thinking that…well, since we've k-k-known each other f-for a month now…do you want to go out with me?" she blurted out the rest of her sentence, her face as red as a tomato.

I was taken aback. She's asking me out? I've never dated someone before back in the ninja world. She was staring at me hopefully, and to tell the truth, I didn't want to turn her down after she worked up the courage to ask me. But something held me back. I hesitated.

"Oh, sure," I said a little shakily, pushing away my misgivings. Her face immediately lit up.

"Thank you, Itachi!" she hugged me around the waist. I instinctively tensed, but Myrah didn't notice.

* * *

~Tobi's POV~

"I'm gonna be a lollipop, lollipop, lollipop," I sang as I skipped down the hallway, earning creeped out looks from my fellow students. Turning the corner, I saw Sendy walking in my direction.

"Sendy!" I yelped, running towards her with arms outstretched.

"Tobi!" she returned my greeting and my hug.

"Sendy, Tobi's gonna be a lollipop!"

"I know!" she squealed.

"If you two are quite finished, we have to get to lunch," an amused voice came from behind me.

"Olivia!" I tackled said person in a hug, "Tobi's gonna be a lollipop!"

"Yes, yes. We know. Now let's get to lunch. I'm hungry," Olivia pried my arms off her.

"Tia, Lindsay, Esder, and I won't be at lunch," Sendy said.

"How come?" Emma asked.

"Orchestra rehearsal."

"No, Sendy! Don't leave Tobi!" I latched onto her again.

"Sorry, Tobi! I have to go!"

"Otherwise, Lindsay will get pissed," Emma laughed.

Sendy rolled her eyes. "No. Ms. Feng will get pissed and Lindsay will think it's funny that Ms. Feng got pissed."

"I would think it's funny, too," Emma said.

"It actually is funny," Sendy turned to leave, "Bye!"

"Bye, Sendy! Tobi will miss you!" I called, doing my best to wave forlornly.

* * *

~Sasori's POV~

When we arrived in the cafeteria, the others were already sitting at our table. I plopped down next to Itachi, who was sitting there staring into space.

"Something wrong?" I asked. He shook his head slowly. Something was definitely wrong.

"Spill," I said, resting my arm on the table to prop my head on it, "What happened?"

"Did someone ask you out?" Emma guessed. Itachi nodded.

"HOLY FUCK! YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND?" Mimi nearly upset her milk carton, "Who is it?"

"Myrah," Itachi mumbled, looking a little uncomfortable.

"Her?" Olivia looked a little aggravated. After a couple seconds of debating with herself (at least, that's what it looked like), she shrugged and asked, "When's your first date?"

Itachi raised his eyebrow. "In a week."

"Wait. Isn't that the date of Lindsay's recital?" Jess said.

All of the girls' heads swiveled to Itachi. "You're gonna miss Lindsay's awesome music recital that only occurs twice a year!" Emma howled, clutching her head.

"Music…recital?" Itachi blinked in a bewildered way.

"It's when Lindsay will be performing a song on violin, piano, or both," Olivia explained.

"Can Tobi go?"

"We were gonna invite all of you and give Lindsay a surprise, but now this one can't go!" Mimi said, glaring at Itachi.

"Relax, guys. We can always record it down and have Itachi listen to it afterwards," Jess said.

"But none of us have a high quality camcorder. Our camcorders suck terribly!" Emma complained.

"My mom owns a really good one," Jess countered, "I'll persuade her to drive us and she can do the recording."

"Fine," Olivia grumbled, returning to her food.

Silence ensued as we devoured the food on our trays. Unfortunately, it was broken by Tobi.

"Tobi wants to know, what's a camcorder?"


	12. Getting Consent Wasn't so Hard

~Emma's POV~

"Really? You've been asked out?" Lindsay repeated, surprise written all over her face.

Itachi nodded from where he sat behind her. We had gotten to Spanish early and while waiting for Mr. Esteban to arrive, I told Lindsay that Itachi had a girlfriend.

"When's your first date?" Lindsay asked while writing down the homework in her agenda.

"In a week from today," Itachi replied a little unwillingly.

"October 24th. That's nice. It won't be too cold or too warm." Lindsay nodded, flipping the pages of her agenda.

"I'm sorry I can't go to your music recital," Itachi apologized.

Lindsay looked up sharply. Uh-oh; she wasn't supposed to know that we knew when her recital was. "How did you know about that?"

"The others told me."

Lindsay raised an eyebrow at me. I grinned sheepishly and put up my hands surrender mode.

"That's ok," Lindsay told Itachi, "I'd rather you go on your date than come to my recital. One of the others could just record it down for you if you wanted." She smiled.

At that moment, Mr. Esteban walked in. Lindsay turned around in her seat to listen to the lecture. I turned around a few seconds later after I saw the mixed emotions in Itachi's eyes. I could've sworn there was something like sadness.

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

School was over now, and Olivia was trying to convince me to go shopping with everyone else for Halloween costumes.

"Please, Linz?" she begged.

"'Liv, I have homework to do. I didn't have Study Hall today so I have to do it all now," I sighed, jotting an answer down on my sheet of paper for Pre-Calculus.

"But even if you go shopping with us now, you'll still be able to finish your homework after we come back," she whined, clasping her hands in front of her, "Please?"

I glanced at the clock. It was very hard to refuse Olivia when she was like this. "Tell you what. We'll go after I finish my math homework."

"Deal!" she beamed.

I rolled my eyes as she turned and left.

An hour later…

"That white dress looks great on you, Konan!" Olivia complimented, "You can wear that for your angel costume."

I knocked on the door to the ladies' fitting room. "Emma, how hard is it to put on a piece of cloth? You've been in there for five minutes already."

"The zipper's stuck in my hair!" Emma said.

"Why were you trying to zip up your hair in the first place, hmm?" Deidara asked, sounding both impatient and amused.

"I wasn't," Emma sounded indignant and in pain, "Linz, can you come in here and help me, please?"

I sighed and reached for the knob. Deidara shut his eyes and turned his head away so he wouldn't…see anything.

I turned the knob. Nothing happened.

"Em, the door's still locked," I called.

There was a click as Emma unlocked the door. I opened it and slipped into the stall. There was a large knot in Emma's hair, and it just had to be caught in the zipper. This was going to be very painful.

"Can I cut your hair?" I asked.

"No."

"Rip?"

"You may not use any hair-shortening method to get this zipper out of my hair."

"Well, it's actually getting your hair out of the zipper…"

"…whatever."

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

"Nine squared is eighty-one, and eighty-one plus eighty-eight is a hundred and sixty-nine," Lindsay muttered as she worked on her science homework, "The statement is false."

"Can you not talk out loud? You're, like, giving me all the answers," I asked.

Lindsay didn't say anything, but merely started talking in Chinese. I shrugged. I just didn't want her to give me all the answers and since I couldn't understand Chinese, this was perfectly fine. Other than Lindsay's muttering and Hidan's occasional swearing, the house was deathly quiet.

A loud crash came from the kitchen. I fell off my chair, screaming, "What the fuck?" Lindsay jumped violently and knocked over her glass of orange juice.

I raced from the living room with Lindsay on my heels. Upon entering the living room, I ran into Sasori, almost knocking him into the table.

"Careful," he cautioned.

"Sorry!" I panted, peering around him to see what happened.

A plate lay shattered on the floor, and Tobi was standing over it, waving his arms and saying, "Tobi is sorry! Tobi didn't mean to!"

I'm not going to go through what I tried to do to Tobi. Key word: tried. Let's just say that if Lindsay and Emma didn't hold me back, Tobi would wish he never set foot in my house.

The sound of the door opening brought my attention away from Tobi. "Who's there?" I called.

"We're home, sweetie!" Two voices chorused from the hall.

"Mom! Dad!" I shrieked, dashing out of the room.

"Hey there, 'Liv," my mom said, hugging me. My dad gave me a kiss on the forehead.

"Emma and Lindsay!" Mom exclaimed, "Who knew we were going to have such a surprise on our first day back?"

Tobi came in from the kitchen. "Tobi is a good boy, so Tobi is going to say hi to Olivia's parents!" The rest of the Akatsuki , minus Zetsu, followed curiously, although I had a feeling Zetsu was watching from somewhere out of sight.

"Who are these people?" Dad asked, releasing Lindsay from a headlock.

"They're friends from school," Lindsay explained as she fixed her hair.

"That's nice," Mom smiled, sticking out her hand, "I am Meredith Wolansky. Pleased to meet you."

Pein shook Mom's hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well," he said formally.

I caught Lindsay's eye and did a quick 'cross-my-heart' motion. She grinned and looked away.

* * *

~Emma's POV~

"We're fine with them staying as long as they respect the house rules," Olivia's mom finally announced.

"And they don't break anything," Olivia's dad added.

I tapped the back of Olivia's and Lindsay's hands. _Good thing Tobi broke the plate before they came home, huh?_ The three of us had plenty of practice sending secret messages to each other, so we were almost never caught by our parents.

A glance at everyone's faces (except Tobi) said that they were thinking along the same lines as me.

_**Some of my friends believe that I use too many cliffhanger endings. Anyone else think the same? You can tell me; I won't get mad.**_

_**Reviews are appreciated, and thanks for reading!**_


	13. Why We're So Crazy

_**I have come up with some new ideas for this story's sequel. I changed the titles:**_

_**Mind of the Heart: Revenge**_

_**Mind of the Heart: Fracture**_

_**Then, there will be a part two, which the Akatsuki comes to our world once more. The titles will be:**_

_**Mind of the Heart 2: Cursed**_

_**Mind of the Heart 2: Punishment**_

_**Mind of the Heart 2: Sacrifice**_

_**There will also be an alternate part two, in which the eight girls end up in the ninja world. Stories are called:**_

_**Mind of the Heart (alt.): Lost**_

_**Mind of the Heart (alt.): Rage**_

_**Mind of the Heart (alt.): Price**_

_**I hope you all will read these when they come out! (I'm probably going to have to put a whole bunch of stories on hold to finish this.) The titles are still subject to change, so please read the author notes at the beginning and end of chapters.**_

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

I shrugged on my white shirt and picked up my violin. Aunt Helen poked her head through the doorway and scowled.

"Linz, you should tie up your hair and put on a little make-up!" she said, forcing me down in a chair and messing with my hair.

"But I don't want to!" I protested. She ignored me as she tied my hair up in a messy and loose bun.

Today was the day of my violin recital. I was supposed to perform in front of old people. How does this call for make-up? Old people don't care how I look!

I cringed away from the lipstick Aunt Helen handed to me. I hated wearing make-up. They made my face feel uncomfortable. I don't understand how those girls at school who wear tons of make-up survive. The only time I wore make-up was in June last school year for a party. It was peer pressure, aka plead with Lindsay until she can't stand seeing puppy faces anymore.

However, I couldn't refuse under Aunt Helen's glare. So I took the lipstick and painfully applied the minimum possible amount on my lips. I was gonna suffocate in the middle of my performance.

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

"When is it starting, hmm?" Deidara asked for the millionth time.

I restrained myself from punching him for the millionth time. "Soon," I answered through gritted teeth.

"I hate waiting," Sasori muttered, sounding like a cute little boy. Oh, wait…did I really just think that? *mentally bangs head against a wall* Thank God nobody can hear thoughts. They'd think I liked him, which I don't. But still.

"Look! It's Ms. Feng's kids!" Emma squealed, bouncing up and down on her seat.

Sure enough, Tiffany and Veralyn were running around the piano that stood in the center of the stage. They were so cute! Tiffany chased her younger sister around the piano, laughing as Veralyn squealed and fled. Suddenly, Veralyn tripped and smacked her head into the piano. Luckily, it wasn't on a corner, but she started crying anyways. Tiffany raced out of the room, screaming 'sister', so I assumed she was going to get help. A couple seconds later, she came back into the room with Lindsay and Ms. Feng on her heels.

Lindsay scooped up Veralyn, patting her on the back to soothe her crying. Tiffany showed Ms. Feng where Veralyn hit her head. After making sure Veralyn was fine, Ms. Feng said something to Lindsay who nodded.

"I'm gonna go talk to Linz," I announced. Emma immediately jumped up to come with me, and the others followed suit. I shrugged. "Guess we're all going then."

"I knew you all were coming," Lindsay sighed tiredly, still holding Veralyn.

"You're wearing make-up, too?" Esder's eyes looked ready to bulge out.

"I didn't want to," Lindsay said.

Esder ignored her. "First, you tie your hair up, which is something you never do! Now, you wear make-up? The world must be coming to an end!"

Lindsay glared at Esder before reaching up and yanking her hair out. I shrieked and tried to grab her hand. Too late.

"No! Why did you take your hair out? You looked so pretty!" I wailed as Lindsay's hair cascaded down her back.

Lindsay didn't bother to answer. She turned to Konan and gave Veralyn to her, saying, "Hold her for me while I check the piano, will you?" Konan nodded and cradled Veralyn, who stared at her with huge, curious eyes.

"I didn't know you were good with children," I commented, giving up on the topic of hair.

"I'm not," Lindsay replied, hitting a couple keys on the piano, "Ms. Feng's kids are the only exception. The only reason I'm nice to other kids is because they're young."

"You only like Halloween 'cause you have an excuse to scare little kids, right?"

"And there's candy. That reminds me, the school is having a Halloween party this year. Anybody is welcome."

I let out an uncharacteristic squeal, jumping up and down and making everyone else stare, not that I cared.

Lindsay interrupted my happy time. "Are you recording me?"

I stared at her blankly, wondering why I would record her at the Halloween party. She rolled her eyes and rephrased her question, "Are you recording my piano performance?"

Oh.

"Yeah," I said, feeling a little stupid for the mix-up.

"Fuck you."

"….well, then."

Hidan roared with laughter. "I didn't know the music geek had such colorful language!"

"She has it, but she doesn't use it unless absolutely necessary," Mimi said, sniggering.

"That wasn't absolutely necessary," Tia objected.

"Oh, shut up."

* * *

~Itachi's POV~

"Any place you want to visit?" Myrah asked me.

"Not really. I don't know the town that well yet," I answered, hands in my pockets.

"Then I'll give you a quick tour. We've got time!" She took me by the elbow and led me down the street.

"That's the bookstore and that's the bakery to the right." Myrah pointed. "On the left is the dollar store, where things are really cheap."

_Kakuzu would love that place._ I thought as I followed Myrah around the small town.

"This is the graveyard," Myrah announced as we stopped in front of a mass of tombstones enclosed by a fence.

"Can we go in?" I asked.

She nodded and pushed open the gate. It creaked ominously and became stuck about halfway. Myrah and I slipped through the opening, and I closed the gate behind me. I wandered up and down the rows of graves, looking for something but unsure of what it was.

Writing on a specific stone caught my eye, and I bent down to read it.

_Jin Xu_

_July 5__th__, 2000 – July 5__th__, 2008_

"This boy died on the same day, but a different year, of his birthday?" I questioned. Myrah shuffled over to read the tombstone.

"Yeah," she said, scratching her arm, "That's Lindsay's little brother."

I whipped around to stare at the tombstone again. _Lindsay's brother…he was only eight years old._

I stood up and walked over to where a clump of wild flowers grew. Reaching down, I plucked three flowers and went back to the grave, placing the fresh flowers in front of the stone.

* * *

~Emma's POV~

"Um, Olivia…?" I asked, trying to get said person's attention, but she was too busy dancing to her iPod to hear me. I rolled my eyes to Lindsay, who was standing next to me gaping at Olivia.

"Tell me when she's done," I muttered, heading downstairs. I passed Sasori on the way and said, "If you need to speak to Olivia, wait till later. She's busy at the moment."

Sasori raised an eyebrow and walked to Olivia's room. He stared for a minute and hunched his shoulders, looking like he was trying to suppress a laugh. I became curious since Olivia's dancing wasn't that funny. Naturally, I went back to look at what happened.

The sight that greeted my eyes was hilarious. Olivia had grabbed Lindsay by the hands and was twirling her around. Now, Lindsay HATES dancing. Unless it was one of those cool-looking groups that organize coordinated dances and stuff. I doubled over, laughing until I thought I would die from lack of oxygen.

"Somebody shoot me!" Lindsay screamed at me and Sasori, making Olivia turn to see who was at her door.

Her eyes widened when she saw Sasori. "Oh, my God! Get out!" She ripped a sock off her foot and threw it at Sasori's head. Sasori dodged and fled, chuckles escaping from his throat.

Unfortunately, Olivia took the opportunity to grab me and make me start dancing with her. "No!" I wailed. I caught Lindsay sneaking quickly and quietly out of the room and screamed, "Linz, help your best friend?"

"Nope," she answered before disappearing.

"Screw you!" I shouted as Olivia, who didn't even notice Lindsay's disappearance, sent me spinning around the room.

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

I sped down the stairs, snatching my sweater off the coat. Meeting Itachi at the door, I quickly said, "I'll be back at dinnertime."

"Where are you going?" he asked, looking confused at my hurry.

"I'm going to find some new friends!" I shouted as I dashed out the front door, hoping to put as much distance as possible between me and Olivia.

* * *

~Itachi's POV~

I walked upstairs to the source of the stomping, stopping outside Olivia's bedroom to stare past the open door. Olivia and Emma were jumping around the room, singing and dancing to some song. Deidara, Konan, and Kisame were also outside the door, looking thunderstruck.

"I don't want to sleep in that room anymore," Konan said, eyes following the two girls. I could understand why Lindsay charged out of the house that fast.

"Emma looks like she's about to die, hmm," Deidara said, "Should we save her?"

"I dunno," Kisame said a little uneasily, "You might get caught by Olivia and be forced to dance as well."

Deidara turned pale. "Oh, uh. I guess I'll leave them be, hmm."

"Deidara-senpai!"

"Shit, hmm," Deidara gasped, becoming completely white.

"More people to join the dance party!" Olivia roared, spotting us thanks to Tobi's outburst.

"RUN!" Kisame bellowed, dashing to his shared bedroom and locking the door.

* * *

_**Heh, I felt like torturing the Akatsuki a little 'cause all of my favorite members died on me. My way of getting revenge :)**_

_**Deidara: Itachi-21! Help us, hmm!**_

_**Me: Nope. You must pay for going after Sasuke and committing suicide.**_

_**Deidara: But…**_

_**Me: No 'buts,' Deidara. You were around the 3**__**rd**__** favorite mark and you went and died. I'm not gonna forgive you that easily.**_

_**Deidara: Who's before me?**_

_**Me: Itachi and Sasori :)**_

_**Deidara: Darn…**_


	14. The Nazgul Rules Halloween

~Olivia's POV~

"Hold still," I grunted at Sasori as he fidgeted in his chair. As he settled, I carefully ran the brush across his face, making a red, blood-like streak.

Now to answer your questions, today was the day of the Halloween party at school, and yes, we were getting the Akatsuki dressed up so they could go. Anybody was welcome to this party, meaning that people who don't even go to our school could come and nobody would care. Therefore, there would be no issues in having a shark, a plant, a zealot, and other assorted characters go terrify people out on the field.

I made a final blood streak and reached for the lip stick. I uncapped it and approached Sasori (who is going as a mutant killer doll). His eyes widened at the sight of it and he jumped up and fled the room.

"Wait, Sasori! Dude! I'm not putting this on your lips!" I called, running after him. I saw him dodge into his shared bedroom and managed to slip inside before he slammed the door shut.

Lindsay was helping Zetsu look more like a mutant plant. I had to admit she was really good. Itachi, who had already dressed up, looked even scarier than the vampires we know and love *coughTwilightcough*. Lindsay had even managed to persuade him to leave his hair down.

"Damn, you're good." I paused in my game of Chase Sasori Around the House to admire her work.

"Thanks," she answered, meticulously applying fake blood to Zetsu's mouth and warning him not to lick it off, "What's going on with you two?"

"I'm trying to convince Sasori that I'm not trying to make him wear lipstick. I'm not THAT mean!" I said, turning back to the redhead. Sasori watched me warily. "Have you done Konan already?"

"Yeah. She's downstairs making sure Deidara, Tobi, and Hidan don't cause too much trouble for Emma," Lindsay said as she put away her supplies, "You're done, Zetsu."

"Thanks, **Linz.**" The black and white guy walked out the door.

"Is Sasori your last?" Lindsay asked me.

I nodded. Sasori had finally believed me and was obediently holding still now.

"I'm gonna go scare Kisame or something," she muttered as she threw on her hood and tied her Nazgul sword around her waist. Itachi looked interested and followed Lindsay out.

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

I quietly snuck downstairs with Itachi on my heels to see Kisame sitting on the sofa facing away from me. I motioned for Itachi to stay where he was and to be as quiet as possible. He nodded and I tiptoed to where Kisame sat. The shark-man had no idea that he should prepare for a heart attack.

Once I was close enough, I bent down and hissed in the creepiest voice I could muster. "_Shire…"_

"HOLY FUCKED UP…!" Kisame jumped a mile into the air, yelling his head off. I collapsed in laughter, pounding my fist on the back of the sofa. Itachi was chuckling by the stairs. The Akatsuki members who happened to be in the room at the time were also amused. Konan was giggling quietly as Deidara and Hidan rolled around on the floor. Pein looked as though he was trying not to smile although his mouth quirked up slightly. Kakuzu was grinning behind his mask, and Emma was doubled over, gasping for air. Olivia, who had arrived just in time, was actually crying from laughing so hard.

"Why you…!" Kisame growled as he grabbed me in a headlock. I couldn't take his threat seriously though since he was laughing almost as hard as the rest of us.

"Kisame, be careful you don't **break her neck,**" Zetsu cautioned.

I squeaked and tried to pry Kisame's arm off. He released me, saying, "I have to admit that that was pretty good, but did you HAVE to scare me witless? I thought the point of this holiday was to scare other people as a group!"

"The point of this holiday seems to be just running around like idiots and terrifying little children," Pein chuckled, "But I have to admit, that was entertaining."

"I vote Lindsay as Witch-King!" Olivia raised her hand.

"Me, too!" Emma shouted.

"So does Tobi, although Tobi doesn't know what a Witch-King is!" The masked man waved his arms above his lollipop head.

"Hey, Linz!" Olivia drew her fake sword. "En garde."

I grinned, pulling out my own sword. "No man can kill me!" I recited the Witch-King's line before he was destroyed.

"I am no man," Olivia imitated Eowyn before pretending to stab me, with the obligatory shout, of course.

"Noooooo!" I wailed as I sank to the ground.

"Hey, guys. Should we go now?" Emma asked, interrupting our little act.

Olivia and I glanced at the clock, which read 7:38. "Shit!" we shouted in unison. There were two more minutes until the party started and we wanted to be there for the entire time. Doing a last check to make sure we had everything, everyone raced out the door and headed for the school.

* * *

~Emma's POV~

After meeting up with the rest of our little band of misfits, our entire group headed out onto the field, where it was less crowded. We walked around the track (don't ask why. It's a habit) and at some point, Myrah came and led Itachi away. Olivia and I exchanged dark glances when that happened, considering neither of us liked Myrah. Gary had also come by and attempted to hit on Konan, but Olivia happily punched his face and attacked him with her fake sword while singing Stronger.

"OMG. I'm so sorry, Kakuzu!" Tia cried, seeing as she had accidentally kicked Kakuzu in the shin when she was aiming for Hidan.

Kakuzu took a step towards Tia, who immediately turned and ran. Kakuzu chased her as she screamed, "I need to fly!" while flapping her arms. The rest of us cracked up watching as Kakuzu finally caught Tia and dragged her back.

Mimi and Hidan had gotten into an argument about gods.

"Bitch, how could you not know Jashin?" Hidan cried, waving his arms in the air.

"I told you that Jashin doesn't exist in this world, jackass!" Mimi snapped.

Let's not go into the details. We'll just assume that they almost ripped out each other's throats, Pein and Kakuzu stepped in, and the rest of us laughed at the terrified glances thrown in their direction from the rest of school.

When it got too cold to just walk around aimlessly, we decided that going inside the school to eat some candy and chips would be the right course of action. I thought the full mouths might shut up Jessica and Esder, who decided to argue about the differences between velvet and corduroy of all things!

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

Esder and Jessica were arguing again, and this time they showed no signs of stopping. I could hear Emma's teeth grinding from ten feet away. I giggled and told her, "Now you know how I feel in Philosophy Club."

She was about to respond heatedly, but Esder said something about Matt Smith being a better Doctor than David Tennant, and Emma gasped at the blasphemy. She then decided to enter their arguments. By the time we got to the cafeteria, the three argued about what made a sentient being sentient. Lindsay and I shook our heads ruefully at their antics.

The argument continued on despite my attempts to get them to shut up. I was getting close to losing my temper, which is not a good thing. However, Lindsay actually beat me to it.

"Shut up," she snarled while cracking her knuckles, "Or I will take your heads and smash them into the ground." They shut up immediately.

This was going to be a long night.

_**I had such a bad case of writer's block during this chapter. Thank God for my BFF, Olivia Wolansky, who wrote the last bit of the chapter for me. LUV YOU, 'LIV!**_

_**REVIEW, READERS! I'M OPEN FOR SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN ON THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS!**_


	15. Hurricane Pros and Cons

~Lindsay's POV~

It was the 29th of October, and Hurricane Joanne was making its arrival known to the state of New Jersey. The wind howled around the house and gray clouds covered the sky. The rain hadn't come yet, but it was only a matter of time.

While Emma, Olivia, and I were somewhat calm about this, the Akatsuki weren't. The ones near a window would cast a nervous glance at the sky every so often. When Olivia asked them, they denied being scared, but that was clearly a lie.

The hurricane would probably push Halloween back a couple days, too. How weird. Halloween in November.

My phone rang. I glanced at the caller ID and groaned. It was Sendy, probably calling to badger me with her worries of the hurricane.

I flipped open my phone and placed it next to my ear. "What are you worried about this time?"

"What if a tree falls on my house? What should I do?" Sendy moaned on the other end.

"Scream and dive under your bed," I replied. Some Akatsuki members were staring curiously at me. I flapped my hand at them, telling them to stop staring. They didn't listen, of course.

"What if it crushes my bed?"

"Then you've just become a human pancake, dear," I said sarcastically. I know, I'm being so supportive.

"I don't wanna die!" she cried.

"You're not gonna die!"

"Can we text?" she begged, "It'll keep my mind off the storm."

"No."

"Why not?"

"It'll waste my battery. Go practice viola or something."

"What if the lights turn off in the middle of practicing?"

"You should've memorized the music. It's been nearly two months."

"I'm not you," she countered.

I rolled my eyes. "Go practice Perseus."

"I don't like it."

"That's cuz you can't play it, which gives you even more reason to practice it."

"You're mean…"

"No shit, Sherlock," I let my tone soften slightly.

"Linz?"

"Hmm?"

"Can we at least text tonight?"

"Fine," I grumbled, ending the call. Olivia came into the living room with her laptop. She flipped it open and turned it on, saying, "I love decapitating zombies."

I burst out laughing. Randomness always makes me laugh, no matter what.

* * *

~Emma's POV~

"Too long," I muttered to myself as I erased the wing of the clay bird Deidara made. Heh, I was actually one hundred percent serious for once. Deidara had agreed to lend me some of his clay creations for me to draw. I had nothing else to do.

Something crossed my line of vision. I blinked and lifted my head to look around. Nothing. I shrugged and bent my head over my sketch again. Imagine my shock when an explosion occurred right next to me.

"Gah!" I gasped, falling out of my chair and onto the floor.

Laughter from the doorway made me whip my head around. Deidara was bent over, laughing his head off at my reaction to the explosion.

"K-k-katsu, hmm," he joked, holding his sides.

"YOU LITTLE TWIT, RUN BEFORE I GO KATSU ON YOU!" I screamed. I wasn't really angry but I needed something to occupy me and chasing Deidara seemed like the most entertaining thing to do right now.

I grabbed my pillow off my bed and ran at him. Unfortunately, the lights chose to go out at that precise moment. It didn't hinder me that much though since Deidara's hair was yellow and glowed in the dark.

However, I stubbed my toe on a leg of the kitchen table as I chased him in there. Scratch the sentence in the last paragraph. The no-lights thing really hindered me.

* * *

"So what do we do now?" Sasori asked from where he sat on the sofa. All of us were gathered in the living room since it had gotten freezing. The damn heater had turned off since we lost electricity. Olivia was sulking since Lindsay made her turn her computer off to save battery. The only light we had was coming from the fireplace and a few candles we decided to light now.

"It's cold," Tobi whimpered.

"Then go get your Akatsuki cloak," Lindsay suggested from where she sat next to Konan, using the latter's shoulder as a pillow.

"I'm fucking hungry," Hidan complained as Tobi went upstairs.

"Eat yourself," Lindsay muttered. Some of us snickered.

"Fuck you."

"No, thanks."

Tobi came sprinting back down the stairs. "Tobi was a good boy and brought everyone's cloaks!" He proceeded to toss the cloaks to all Akatsuki members, leaving us girls to fend for ourselves. Well, then.

Luckily, Pein noticed me shivering and tossed me his cloak, saying that he didn't need it. Olivia crawled over to me and we huddled under the cloak together. Lindsay was lucky. She was sitting between Konan and Itachi (two heat sources, dammit) and Konan was sharing her cloak. Not that Lindsay would know. She had fallen asleep.

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

I want my laptop…

The Akatsuki looks so badass with shadows flickering across their faces.

I don't know why I'm feeling random right now.

* * *

~Sasori's POV~

Later on into the storm, Lindsay's phone rang, making us all jump. Lindsay's eyes flew open and she seized the remote for the TV, pointing it at us all in turn. She blushed once she realized that it was her phone ringing and left the room to answer it, muttering an apology.

She returned a couple minutes later. "Who was it?" Emma asked tiredly. Olivia twitched in her sleep but didn't wake up.

"My aunt," Lindsay replied dully, throwing herself back between Konan and Itachi, "Ugh…"

"Hey, Linz?" Emma was eyeing Olivia's sleeping form with a devious look. Olivia was in trouble.

"Huuuuuhhhh…" Lindsay groaned, not bothering to look at Emma.

"Wanna get me some…?"

"No," Lindsay deadpanned before Emma even finished her sentence.

"But…"

"No."

"Please…"

"No."

Emma turned her eyes to me. "Sasori…?"

I sighed. "Depends on what it is, brat."

"Some toothpaste from the bathroom."

I contemplated it, and then rose out of my seat to get the toothpaste. "Love ya, Sasori!" Emma called after me.

"Shut up, brat," I called.

When I returned with the toothpaste, Emma was practically bouncing up and down with anticipation. I raised my eyebrows at her as I handed off the toothpaste, asking why she wanted it.

"You'll see." Emma happily unscrewed the tube.

"Emma, it's midnight," Lindsay said, rubbing her eyes, "It's too late to be playing pranks."

"It's the best time cuz she's asleep," Emma argued, squeezing toothpaste onto Olivia's face.

_These girls are crazy._ I thought, running a hand through my hair.

* * *

_**FYI: Sasori is human in this story. Just thought you should know.**_

_**I updated this a week early. *stares at calendar* Must be from my friends' peer pressure. Hope you enjoy!**_

_**REVIEW!**_


	16. Karate Makes Beating People Up Fun

~Olivia's POV~

"What's so funny?" I asked Konan, who was struggling not to smile. She just shook her head and walked away.

What the hell was everyone laughing about? I mean seriously, the first thing I see when I wake up is Sasori smirking at me. I asked why and he just told me to ask someone else. I did, but everyone else just told me to ask a different person or collapsed in fits of laughter that made them incapable of speech.

Well, there was still one person I haven't spoken to yet. Pein.

"Pein?" I called. He popped his ginger head out of his shared room.

"Yes?"

"Why's everyone laughing?"

He stared at me for a second. "The best way for you find out would be to look in a mirror." He withdrew back into his room.

Mystified, I headed into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror.

….

"WHAT THE FRIG AND FUCKED UP SHIT?" I screamed.

There was a mustache drawn on my face in toothpaste! The ends of the mustache curled up in swirls. Not to mention there was also a gigantic smiley face smack on my forehead. Whoever did this was so dead.

I stomped downstairs, stopping in front of the Akatsuki and my two best friends. "WHOEVER THE FUCK DID THIS IS GONNA PAY!"

They started laughing their asses off, but I was not amused.

Lindsay paused in her laughing fit. "You know, 'Liv, you might be taken a little more seriously if you get rid of the toothpaste before yelling at us."

Right.

*Insert me washing off the toothpaste*

* * *

"Who did this?" I hissed once my face was toothpaste-free.

Nobody answered.

"Was it you?" I shot at Linz.

"Nope," she replied.

"Do you know who did it?"

"Yup."

"Tell."

"No."

"Why not?"

She rolled her eyes. "After hearing the threat you gave to whoever did it, I'm not inclined to say anything."

"So it WAS you!" I exclaimed.

"I assure you it wasn't."

"Then tell me who!" I stomped my foot in frustration.

"Aww, being a girly girl and stomping your foot?" Lindsay teased.

"At least I don't have an obsession with chocolate!" I retaliated.

Lindsay rolled her eyes again. "Bitch, please. Chocolate is THE best."

"What did you just call me?"

"Bitch!"

"Stop it, you two," Pein ordered sternly.

"Yes, Dad," Lindsay and I replied in unison.

Pein's face was epic.

* * *

~Mimi's POV~

"Good morning, bitches and jackasses!" I yelled, practically kicking the door open.

"Bitch!" A certain, silver-haired asshole greeted me.

I pretended to not know who Hidan was talking to. "Are you talking to me or her?" I jabbed my thumb at Sendy, who had followed me in.

Hidan scowled. "I'm talking to you, bitch," he growled, throwing the TV's remote control at me.

I caught it and chucked it back. Vice versa.

After a few minutes of me and Hidan trying to hit each other with the remote, Olivia cleared her throat and asked, "What's up?"

"Wanna continue our tradition of going around and assessing hurricane damage?" I asked, ducking the remote.

"Yeah," Olivia said, getting up from her chair, "We were actually waiting for you two."

Lindsay and Emma came tromping down the stairs. "Hey, Mimi!" Emma called, "You should've gotten here earlier. You would've seen Olivia with…!"

"Shut up!" Olivia snapped, slapping her hand over Emma's mouth. Lindsay smirked.

"What?" I asked, now curious.

"It's nothing," Olivia replied a little too quickly.

"Buf Omibwia, iw wuf bery munny!" Emma complained past Olivia's hand.

…

"What?"

"But Olivia, it was very funny," Lindsay translated, receiving a smack to the back of her head. "Ow!"

"Can we just go?" Olivia was getting impatient. She suddenly let out a yelp. Glaring at Emma, she growled, "You licked me."

"And now, I must go wash my tongue. Dunno where your hand's been," Emma retorted, heading to the kitchen sink.

"Excuse me?"

"You're excused."

As Emma and Olivia were bickering, I leaned towards Lindsay and whispered, "What happened?"

"Emma drew a mustache and a smiley face on Olivia's face using toothpaste while 'Liv was sleeping," she whispered back.

I burst out in laughter. Olivia and Emma whipped around to stare. Emma was grinning while Olivia looked seriously pissed.

"It's not funny!" she hollered, stamping her foot. It only made me laugh harder.

"Fuck yeah, it is!" I gasped when I had the chance.

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

"I still say Hurricane Sandy was worse." I kicked at a tree branch that had been ripped cleanly off the actual tree.

"At least it's not as cold," Sendy said, balancing across a fallen tree.

"Yeah, otherwise we'd be friggin' peep-sicles," Mimi added.

"Peep-sicles?" Emma raised an eyebrow.

"People popsicles," Mimi elaborated.

"That's a new one. Never heard it before." Olivia kicked at a pebble on the sidewalk.

"Do you people spend your free** time coming up with strange words?**" Zetsu asked.

"Yep," Mimi, Emma, Olivia, and Sendy all said. Being the outcast, I just nodded.

"Hey, we got company, hmm," Deidara said, "It's the guy who pissed off Toothpaste-Face."

Olivia gave Deidara the finger before turning to face her ex-boyfriend. Gary had two of his friends, Jacob and Leo, with him.

"Do you need something?" I asked coldly, knowing full well that they'd give me some shit answer and bracing myself for a fight that would definitely ensue.

"I need one of you to come with me," Gary replied, smirking.

"Why do you need one of us if you have your own friends to fuck with?" I countered.

The effect was immediate. Jacob, being the hot-head, moved to punch me in the face. I ducked with lightning speed, seized a branch from the ground, and smashed it into his side. Thank you, martial arts!

Jacob staggered back, holding his ribs. He narrowed his eyes at me and prepared to charge. Using my foot to pick up another stick, I called, "This guy is my opponent!"

"You just wanted to use that line!" Mimi shouted as she engaged Leo in a fist fight. Naturally, Olivia took on Gary.

* * *

~Sendy's POV~

"Should we do something?" Konan wondered worriedly, watching the six fight.

"Not usually," I answered, plopping down on the fallen tree, "Those three were top in their karate class. You see, they'll do anything possible to make sure they win."

"Why do I feel worried?" Kisame joked.

"You should be if you were like us," I said, "Watch." The Akatsuki turned just in time to see Mimi kick Leo where it really counts.

The Akatsuki looked very disturbed as Leo fell to the ground clutching that place and Mimi pretended to dust herself off.

Lindsay was using her stick to whack Jacob between the legs (1). "Oh, I love that move!" I said, pointing excitedly.

"What's it called?" Itachi asked.

I shrugged. "Dunno. Lindsay just calls it The Move That Confuses the Shit out of People."

Tobi gasped and covered my mouth. "Sendy shouldn't curse! It's a bad thing to do."

"I only said it to tell you exactly how Lindsay says it," I explained, removing Tobi's hand from my mouth.

"Ooohh, nice shot, 'Liv!" Emma suddenly called enthusiastically.

I focused back to the fight to see Gary lying on the ground, holding his face. Olivia probably dealt him an uppercut or something.

Not that it really matters 'cause Mimi, Lindsay, and Olivia won.

* * *

~Emma's POV~

"You guys are getting rusty," I commented, dabbing at a Mimi's split lip, "If you weren't, you wouldn't have gotten these injuries."

"Oh, shut up," Mimi snapped, wincing slightly.

"How's your shoulder doing?" Sasori asked Lindsay.

She lifted the ice pack slightly. "It's bruised," she sighed, "Thank God there's no school for the next couple of days."

"Otherwise, Ms. Feng would be really pissed cuz you won't be able to play violin," Sendy said.

Lindsay grunted, letting Sendy know that she was heard.

"What will your parents say about you fighting?" Konan looked up from bandaging Olivia's arm.

"My parents don't give a shit," Mimi deadpanned.

"My parents aren't even here," Olivia pointed out.

"My parents are dead, and you don't wanna know what Aunt Helen would say," Lindsay muttered.

"It's really disturbing," I added helpfully at Konan's curious look.

Ah, the stuff we get ourselves into…

* * *

_1. You know how a person's legs make a triangle with the floor when the person is standing? This move has the user use some kind of staff or stick and makes one end of the stick rebound among the ground and the target's legs, basically whacking the victim's legs in unpredictable patterns. Really does confuse the hell out of the enemy._

_**I never thought my friends would like this story so much. They're practically offering to help me write chapters when I say I'm too busy. Either that or they peer pressure me. Readers, be glad they do that, cuz if they didn't, I would probably still only be on chapter 8 right now.**_

_**REVIEW, PEOPLE! I DON'T POST THESE FOR MY OWN ENTERTAINMENT! (thanks to those who reviewed before)**_


	17. What Crazy People Do on Halloween 1

_**There's a poll up on my profile for this fanfiction! Please cast your vote by May 1st.**_

~Olivia's POV~

Hurricanes aren't fun. Even the ones that don't do the same scope of damage as some major ones are still going to rip up trees, down power lines, and make a mess from the water and debris. Three hurricanes getting rid of our power, and you'd think we'd be adapted. How wrong you are.

"Tobi, if you don't shut up, I am going to rip you apart and put you in the oven."

"But Tobi's a good boy!"

"Then fucking shut up!"

Lindsay, Emma, and I were reading, a shocker since I hadn't picked up a book in a year. Maybe not that bad, but Em and Linz could say the same. Now, when I read I like privacy, solitude, and silence. But it's hard to concentrate on tales of woe and dangerous escapades with a hyper, masked criminal bouncing on your bed asking when you'll finish your book.

"Tobi, the three of us are reading and I can hear you from down here! I want to find out what happens to Alanna!"

Emma had taken refuge in the foyer downstairs, and still hadn't finished book one of the Lioness series. I think Tobi was getting on her nerves too.

"But Tobi wants to have fun! Why don't Emma, Lindsay, and Olivia want to have fun?"

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

Three...Two...

"GAHHHHH! SHUT UP!"

I smirked. Olivia had finally cracked. I looked up from the couch long enough to see Tobi fleeing a pissed Olivia, who seemed to have grabbed the biggest, heaviest book on her shelf (The Atlas of Languages) and was intent on knocking Tobi out. He easily ducked her swings, but Olivia seemed to have enough pent up rage and energy to go for...oh...another hour at least. Then she'll just stop running and go read a different book.

"Does she generally get that agitated from interruptions?" came a voice nearby.

I didn't even look up to answer Itachi's question, but I smiled.

"She only gets really pissed when you don't stop interrupting while she's reading. Once, she understands, twice, you annoy her, third, better pray for a miracle, cause she's ready to kill."

Itachi shook his head ruefully. "Should we expect a quieter week after this ceremony you spoke of?"

I internally laughed. The Akatsuki couldn't understand our obsession with trick-or-treating.

"I think Tobi will get a brief sugar rush and then sleep till next week," I said, giggling slightly. I raised my voice to shout to Olivia, "Be careful you don't...!"

_Crash!_

"...break anything," my voice trailed off as Olivia knocked one of the pottery projects we did in fifth grade to the floor. The little cup shattered into pieces upon contact with the floor. "Too late."

The cup was really ugly anyway.

* * *

~Emma's POV~

"Hurry up!" I giggled. Trick-or-treating does that to me. I wanted to get to as many houses as possible, but the Akatsuki seemed to be rather startled by the array of monsters and creatures sitting on people's lawns or roaming the sidewalks. Even Tobi was subdued, and that was a scary thought in and of itself.

"Emma, since you want to go so quickly, how about some of us go separately?" Kisame asked.

"Not a bad plan actually," I said and grinned. "You guys are cramping my style."

So in the end, the whole group split up. Olivia, Linz, me, Pein, Itachi, Deidara, and Hidan all stuck together to get candy. I was surprised by the group that wanted to go alone. Konan, Kisame, Sasori, Tobi, and Zetsu. That's either going to be the funniest group ever and I'd hate to miss out, or -

I coughed under my breath to get everyone's attention for a sec.

"Now don't go terrifying everyone alright?" I sternly told the loner group. I was glad the hood hid my smile.

Kisame looked down at me and replied, "With anyone else, the cloak, hood, and your stern voice would of course terrify me, but since it's you..."

I decided to punch him in the arm.

"Now let's shove off people, we only have another three good hours of candy to get before we have to beg!"

They went their way and I got cramps in my cheeks from smiling at how I thought their night was going to be.

* * *

~Zetsu's POV~

"**BOO**!"

"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH!"

The little kids ran away screaming their heads off, while Kisame and I high-fived. Trick-or-treating wasn't for the candy. It was far too much fun to scare the people who were walking around. Konan didn't want to yell, but her quiet tap on the shoulder and whispered, "Hello," in people's ears was just as scary.

Then I caught sight of Tobi, who was giggling as he set up a trap with water balloons. I poked Kisame in the side and gestured to Tobi's retreating back. He took a knowing look and we slowly snuck around the corner.

* * *

~Pein's POV~

Emma, Lindsay, Olivia, Hidan, and Deidara all went up to the front door of the house. How they could be comfortable knocking on strangers' doors to get candy of all things was unknown to me.

A small bump from behind interrupted my watch.

"'Scuse me, mister!" It was only a little boy. He appeared to be wearing a ridiculous hat with drawstrings and boots with spurs on them. The boy asked, "What are you supposed to be?"

I wasn't thinking about my answer, so I told him I was God.

"Oh. Is my mommy okay up there?"

I blinked in surprise. I hadn't expected the boy to have been alone, but I saw no one around him. I took on the warmer tone of a considerate father or friend.

"She's fine," I replied with a small smile.

"Can you tell her I love her and said hi?"

I stooped down in front of him to be at eye level. "She says she loves you too, and that she's sorry. She also mentioned that a certain son of hers shouldn't eat too much candy tonight."

He smiled brightly, hugged me, and went on his way. I stood up in time for the group to come back. I had to hide the tiniest of tears from them as we walked on. I never forgot that little boy who missed his mother, and I didn't really think about anything else for the rest of the night.

* * *

**_H'lo, people! Hope you enjoyed this chapter of the Akatsuki's first Halloween. Next chapter shall include the second half of the night. Review and stay tuned!_**

**_'Til next time!_**


	18. What Crazy People Do on Halloween 2

~Olivia's POV~

"Ew. I got some black licorice. Anyone wanna trade?" I asked, holding up the candy and looking hopefully at the others.

"Here." Lindsay tossed me a Reece's and I chucked the black licorice to her. My aim went completely off and the licorice ended up in the garbage can instead.

"Umm…oops?" I grinned sheepishly as Lindsay eyed the contents of the garbage.

"Hmm…a banana peel, chicken bones, and a piece of paper that has a stain that looks suspiciously like blood. I'm not going after that licorice," she decided, going back to digging through her bag.

I looked through my loot until I found a Crunch. This time, I SLID the candy bar to Linz, who smirked and put it in her bag.

"Thanks, 'Liv," she said.

"Does anyone have any Nerds?" Emma asked, peering into her bag mournfully.

"Yeah, here." Lindsay and I both threw a box of Nerds at her. She caught Lindsay's, but my box hit her on the forehead. She didn't care at all.

"Yay!" she said happily, opening a box and dumping the entire contents into her mouth.

I stared. "Don't eat so much at once. You'll get sugar high!"

"Wrong, 'Liv. Emma doesn't need sugar to get high. She can get high off of life," Lindsay corrected.

"No, Esder and Jess are the ones that get drunk off of life," Emma objected, "I'm just naturally hyper."

"Same thing." I shrugged.

Emma continued, "You two have the funniest reactions to getting high. You, 'Liv, say the most random and disturbing things. Linz, you just can't stop laughing once you start."

I exchanged '…' looks with Lindsay, who shook her head and went back to trading candy with Deidara.

Speaking of getting high, I suddenly remembered something crucial. "Shit!" I shouted, jumping up.

Sasori stared at me with his slightly alarmed eyes. "What's the matter?"

"Where's Tobi?" I demanded. Everyone stared back at me with growing alarm in their eyes.

"Oh, no, hmm!" Deidara cried, jumping up and looking around wildly.

"I hope he didn't eat any candy yet," Kisame said with a mild tone.

"Itachi," Pein commanded. Itachi nodded and activated his red eyes. I don't remember what they're called. I only know that it started with 'Sharing'. But sharing what?

"It's Sharingan," Lindsay hissed in my ear and I flinched as I realized I had been talking out loud. Itachi showed no sign that he heard me and kept his gaze fixed upstairs.

"Tobi's upstairs, but he's coming back down quite swiftly," he reported. A millisecond later, Itachi was tackled in a flying hug by a super hyper Tobi.

"Itachi-san! Tobi's a good boy! Heeheehee!" the masked man giggled crazily. He got up, pulling Itachi with him and proceeded to pet Kisame, who looked as though he wanted to eat Tobi.

"Cute sharky! Kisame-senpai is a good shark, right?" Tobi cooed. Not waiting for an answer, he began dancing around Lindsay.

"Linz! Tobi likes your hair. It's black and brown, and Sendy's hair is jet-black! Why do Asians have black hair? Tobi has black hair. Is Tobi Asian?" he blabbered. I would have laughed out loud at Lindsay's expression if I wasn't the next target.

Tobi glomped me, pushing me backwards. "Olivia, Tobi thinks that you and Sasori should get married! And by the way, Tobi heard a new word at school before the hurricane. Tobi was being a good boy and going to class, and Tobi heard someone say 'fuck.' What does fuck mean? Tobi tried to ask the teacher, but the teacher refused to answer!"

"What the…? Ow! Shit! Huh? Ouch!" I cried, stumbling back and falling on the floor.

Sasori looked ready to murder Tobi while Deidara collapsed on the ground, holding his sides from laughter.

Tobi released me and ran back upstairs. We heard a few loud thumps and Tobi's footsteps thudded back down the stairs. This time, he was holding a violin in his hands. _Uh-oh._ I was almost afraid to turn and look at Lindsay.

"Look! Tobi's Lindsay playing the violin!" Tobi cried, oblivious to the amount of danger he was in as he started moving the bow across the strings, producing an awful screeching sound.

I slowly turned my head towards Lindsay and saw the most frightening look in her eyes. It was the look that always came when Lindsay was at an anger level of eight out of ten.

"Tobi…" she snarled. I backed away from her as she started walking towards the masked ninja.

"Eh?" Tobi dropped the violin in surprise. Itachi caught it and took the time to retrieve the bow as well. He held the two items awkwardly, as though worried Lindsay would get pissed at him for not holding it correctly. Lindsay, however, was completely focused on Tobi.

"Don't. Touch. My. VIOLIN (1)!" she ground out before kicking Tobi where it counts. Tobi fell to the ground, holding his injured area.

The good thing about Lindsay getting angry was that she calms down pretty quick. Now, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, before walking towards Itachi and taking her violin from him.

"Thank you, Itachi," she said, smiling a little. Itachi nodded as she turned and headed upstairs to put her violin away.

I released the nervous breath that I had been holding. "Tobi?" I asked tentatively.

"Yes, Olivia?" Tobi's voice was muffled as he lay curled up on the floor.

"Just keep in mind to never handle Lindsay's violins. She is very protective of them."

"Okay, Olivia."

* * *

~Emma's POV~

"Guys, we should watch this!" I exclaimed, holding a horror movie called The Mummy.

"I have a movie called The Mummy?" Olivia asked, taking the disc from me and popping it into the DVD player.

"Well, obviously you do, otherwise it wouldn't be sitting in the pile of horror movies that you own," I said, sitting down next to Lindsay.

"I don't even remember getting it," Olivia muttered, putting on the subtitles for the movie.

"Olivia's getting senile," Lindsay joked, licking some chocolate off her fingers.

"Oh, shut up! You didn't even remember your birthday!" Olivia retorted.

"Uh, correction. I did remember it, but that was a week later," Lindsay countered.

"Same thing!"

"Shut up, bitches! We're trying to watch the fucking movie!" Hidan snapped, his eyes fixed on the screen.

"Yeah, hmm!" Deidara chided.

"Oh, please. Who's talking now?" Olivia sneered.

"Bitch, we wouldn't be talking if you weren't talking in the first place!"

"Hidan, you idiot, hmm!"

"What did I fucking do, blondie?"

"You just admitted that we were the ones talking!"

"So?"

"Silence," Pein ordered calmly.

A deathly quiet immediately followed his word.

* * *

~Still Emma's POV~

I leaned forward into the screen as the three protagonists attempted to pry open a sarcophagus. They tugged at the cover a few times and it sprang open. I let out a tiny yelp at the sudden appearance of the mummy-skeleton of the evil guy. It was grotesque, looking as though it was covered in dried blood and some rotting flesh hung off of it in tatters. The jaw hung open, saying that the person was screaming before he died. He was buried alive and with a bunch of scarabs, flesh-eaters.

When the part where the mummy-skeleton came to life because one of main characters read the evil spell, I gripped the arm of the person closest to me, which happened to be Deidara. He gave me a strange look and raised an eyebrow but allowed me to hold on. Lindsay was hugging a pillow and staring at the screen with wide eyes while Olivia was doing her best to keep a poker face. Hidan looked almost giddy with happiness when the mummy-skeleton took a living person's eyes and tongue to compensate for its rotten ones. In fact, Hidan let out a great shout of laughter when that happened, causing the rest of us to jump a mile in the air.

He got a joint beating from Kisame, Pein, Kakuzu, and Olivia for that.

After almost killing Hidan, we continued with the movie. The mummy-skeleton had left the tomb and was going around mummifying a certain group of people to regain its strength. It had already mummified the first person of the four-man group, and the first guy happened to be the one that lost his eyes and tongue. Looking at the mummified body made me cover my eyes. Lindsay looked disgusted and spooked. Olivia had stubbornly closed her eyes and didn't see that part. Cheater.

Now, the mummy-skeleton had gotten the second person, meaning it only needed two more people before it became unstoppable. It could already control a massive group of people and manipulate swarms of bugs. It was coming after the last two men and the female protagonist, whom it planned to use as a sacrifice to bring back its love.

Since I don't feel like explaining the rest of the movie, I'll just say that the mummy-skeleton got owned by the main characters.

* * *

~Konan's POV~

"What did you think of the movie?" Olivia asked, getting into bed beneath me.

"I thought it was…interesting," I answered, taking the paper rose out of my hair.

Olivia grunted. "I just hope Emma doesn't come running into this room in the middle of the night because she had a nightmare or something."

"She does that?"

"Yeah. We had a sleepover during the summer three years ago and watched a scary movie. Halfway through the night, she came running into my room because she dreamed that she was being eaten by a mutant carnivorous plant."

_Sounds a lot like Zetsu._ I thought with amusement.

* * *

Sometime later in the night, the door to the bedroom flew open and Emma came running in. Olivia and I both sat up in bed as Lindsay followed Emma in, looking tired as hell.

"What's the matter, Em?" Olivia said groggily, "Nightmare again?"

Emma nodded. "Can I sleep with you?"

Olivia groaned. "Last time I checked, Lindsay was sleeping in the same bed with you."

"You know that she doesn't like being hugged in her sleep." Emma pouted.

Olivia heaved a sigh. "Alright. Linz, we're switching places for the night."

"'Kay," Lindsay muttered, slipping into Olivia's bed.

"What's going on?" Pein asked, appearing at the doorway.

"Nightmare issues," I informed him. He nodded and turned back to his room, sending a sleepy-looking Deidara and Sasori back inside.

Olivia and Emma left the room, shutting the door behind them. I laid back down and reentered the confines of sleep within seconds.

* * *

**Next time on **_**Mind of the Heart: Jealousy**_**…**

"What? We're starting school again in two days?"

"The middle school sucks. I hated it when I was here."

"Wanna go down into the woods?"

"You just friggin' slipped in the river, and you're more fucking worried about your hair than your head?"

"The stone was right here, by the way."

* * *

1. Lindsay is very protective of her violin. She doesn't mind if you touch it, but if you hold it, she'll try and kill you. The one Tobi held was the one that cost about $1,500. She also has another one that's about $500, and she would also hurt Tobi if he touched that one. Even if she owned a violin that was free, she'd attack anyone who held it. Lindsay's just THAT protective.

_**There's a poll up on my profile for this story. Go vote on it to help me update quicker!**_

_**There will be a preview section in future chapters so you guys can get an idea of what's gonna happen next. This section will basically just contain some quotes from the next chapter, like in the Naruto Shippuden previews.**_

_**REVIEW, GUYS! I CAN'T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!**_


	19. Into the Woods, We Go!

_**Participate in the poll on my profile, people! You have until April 13**__**th**__** instead of May 1**__**st**__** cuz I can't wait that long.**_

_**And I really need to go on a rant about something that's been bugging me lately, so if you don't think the following paragraph applies to you, skip it and read the chapter.**_

_**I'm gonna get straight to the point here. For those who are always saying "oh, emma wouldn't do this…" or "no, Olivia wouldn't do that…," guess what? I DON'T FREAKING CARE. This is a story. It's not reality, so stop complaining about some of the things the characters do. If it bothers you that badly, go write your own story that has all the characters being their old, slap-happy selves. But this is my story, and I get to decide what to do with it. TAKE YOUR COMPLAINTS AND SHOVE IT.**_

_**Rant done. Sorry for those who had nothing to do with it.**_

* * *

~Sendy's POV~

"Still no power, Olivia?" I asked sympathetically, stretched out on the couch and playing Cat's Cradle with Lindsay.

Olivia shook her head. "Did yours come back?"

"Two days ago, yeah."

"Jerk."

"Wahhhh!" I cried, hugging Linz, "Olivia's being mean to me!"

Lindsay was not in the comforting mood. "Sendy, 'Liv has called me 'bitch' before and I'm not complaining."

"I'm not as bad as Mimi," Olivia objected.

"Yeah," Emma agreed, "Remember what Mimi called Lindsay when they first met?"

Olivia and Emma cracked up in laughter as Lindsay glared at them.

"What the fuck happened?" Hidan asked eagerly.

"Well, she didn't swear that much but the name was still hilarious 'cause Linz just hates…" Emma rambled.

"Just tell us the name," Zetsu sighed, "**No need to get too specific.**"

"Barbie Doll."

"…?" The Akatsuki obviously did not know what Barbie was.

Linz sighed and traipsed upstairs, returning a few moments later with a Barbie doll in her hand. She threw it at Hidan. "This is a Barbie doll."

Olivia gaped. "Where did you get that?"

"From your room."

"It's really ugly, hmm." Deidara wrinkled his nose.

"You can blow it up as long as the explosion is small," Lindsay told him.

Deidara's eyes literally sparkled. "Really, hmm?" he squeaked.

"As long as the explosion is _small._"

"Just don't blow it up at all," Olivia snarled, taking the doll ad glaring at Lindsay, "Where's the chainsaw?"

"Awww…poor Barbie," Emma joked, "It's gonna get chain-sawed to bits."

I took the Barbie doll from Olivia. "I don't get it. What's so bad about Barbie?"

"It's pink," Olivia and Lindsay replied at the same time, both shooting dirty looks at the doll.

I rolled my eyes. "Are you guys being color-ist now?"

"Be glad Mimi isn't here," Olivia warned, "She'd probably take that doll and bash it against your head."

"And throw in a few curses," Lindsay added, starting a new game of Cat's Cradle with Emma.

"THIS FUCKING SCHOOL IS STUPID! I MEAN, WHAT THE HELL?" Mimi's furious voice echoed in the halls as the front door banged open and slammed shut, "HEY! PEOPLE!"

Olivia quickly placed her hands over my ears as Mimi stormed inside, looking ready to destroy the world.

* * *

~Mimi's POV~

"THE FUCKING SCHOOL IS BEING A FUCKING DICK! LIKE, SERIOUSLY? SCHOOL IN TWO MORE DAYS? AND WE WON'T EVEN FUCKING BE IN THE GOD-DAMNED HIGH SCHOOL! WE HAVE TO FREAKING GO TO THE CRAPPY MIDDLE SCHOOL! EVEN THE FRIGGIN' SCHEDULE IS FUCKING MESSED UP! #$%&*^%!$%^$#!" I ranted, stomping around in the living room.

"Mimi, not so much cursing in front of Sendy," Emma admonished playfully. I glared daggers at her. "Uhh…on second thought, you can curse as much as you like," she hastily amended.

"What? We have school in two days?" Olivia exclaimed, releasing Sendy's ears and jumping out of her seat.

"That's what I said, dumbass," I deadpanned.

"Shut up, bitch," Olivia retorted, "Worst of all, we have to go to the middle school? Ugh!"

"The middle school sucks. I hated it when I was there," Sendy moaned.

"What's so bad about the middle school?" Sasori asked, raising a red eyebrow.

"Small, stuffy, lots of bugs," Lindsay listed, closing her eyes and leaning back tiredly.

Olivia tried to cheer her up. "Hey, Linz. Want some chocolate?"

"…no thanks."

Our jaws dropped. Never before had Lindsay refused chocolate!

Olivia grabbed Lindsay by the shoulder, shaking her violently and screaming, "Who are you, and what have you done to Lindsay?"

"What the fuck?" Lindsay shouted, bracing her foot against Olivia's stomach and kicking the latter off, "What the hell was that for?" she growled, pinning Olivia to the sofa.

"I was kidding!" Olivia tried to punch Lindsay. Lindsay dodged the blow by leaping backwards and flipping off the sofa. Olivia aimed a couple more swings, which Lindsay dodged with ease. I merely leaned against the wall, watching them have their mock-battle. Emma was staring absentmindedly out the window, and Sendy was biting her lip in worry. Hidan-bastard was cackling madly as he watched the brawl. Zetsu had sunk into the floor and disappeared.

Deidara was watching the fight just as interestedly as I was. Itachi, however, shot a meaningful glance at Sasori, who sighed and held out a hand. I watched in fascination as blue strings shot from the end and attached themselves to Olivia, who stopped moving immediately.

"Wha…?" She looked around wildly before seeing the strings. Glaring at Sasori, she asked, "What are you doing?"

"Making sure that Pein doesn't have to come down here and punish all of us for causing a racket," Sasori replied boredly.

Olivia glared harder. "Let me go."

"Are you gonna keep fighting?"

"If you don't let me go, puppet man, I'll…"

"Hey, guys! Wanna go down into the woods?" Emma interrupted, turning away from the window.

"Don't interru…!"

"Yeah, let's go," Lindsay cut in, heading for the door.

A vein popped on Olivia's temple. "I said…"

"I'll call the others," I interrupted for the heck of it, smirking at Olivia. She ground her teeth and scowled. When she saw Emma covering her mouth and shaking and heard Lindsay cough, her eyes widened.

"You three set me up!"

* * *

~Lindsay's POV~

"She's still sulking," Emma giggled as we led everyone into the woods.

"She'll get over it," I replied, glancing back at Olivia, "Although probably not anytime soon since Mimi was laughing fit to kill."

"That's 'cause it was friggin' hilarious!" Mimi called from the back of the group, "Did you see her face?"

"Yes, we did. There's no need to rub it in," I answered. Olivia was now in her emo bubble.

"Cheer up, Olivia!" Emma hugged Olivia, "Remember when we dared Lindsay to spray-paint a smiley face on one of Bartle's walls?"

Olivia cheered up immediately. "That was so funny!"

"The smiley face is still there," Jess told us.

"Really?" Olivia, Emma, Sendy, Mimi, Esder, Tia, and I asked together.

"What's Bartle?" Pein asked.

"The name of our elementary school," I answered.

"We're here, people!" Emma announced happily.

You see, the eight of us had this special clearing in the woods that we loved to come down to relax and hang out. There was a stream with a log across it, giving us access to both sides. An old shack stood at the edge of the clearing, offering a cool place to go on summer days. There were lots of pebbles on the banks of the stream and we would sometimes sit on them and put our feet in the water.

"Hey, Linz!" Mimi was standing on the log, "Train?"

I rolled my eyes. Believe it or not, the log actually provided a good place for balance training. The way we train was by having one person stand on the log and another throws pebbles at them. The person would try to not get hit by any pebbles and stay on the log at the same time. Another way was to have two people spar on the log without falling off. The latter also helped us karate people enhance our teamwork skills since the objective was to keep your opponent and yourself on the log.

"Depends," I strolled over to the end, placing my foot on the wood, "Which one do you want to do?"

Mimi pondered for a moment before grinning and saying, "Pebbles!"

I walked a good distance away from the log before scooping up a handful of pebbles. "Ready?"

"Born ready!"

I began hurling the small stones at her. We've been doing this exercise for a couple years now, so Mimi was able to dodge the stones and stay on the log, although there were a couple times when she nearly slipped and fell into the water.

"Guys, come on! We came here to relax, not train!" Sendy whined.

I threw a stone at her, missing intentionally. She still let out a squeal and slipped, falling in the stream with a splash.

Spluttering, she staggered back to her feet and gripped her head. "My hair!" she wailed.

"You just friggin' slipped in the river, and you're more fucking worried about your hair than your head?" Mimi asked incredulously.

"It's a stream, Mimi," I informed her.

"Whatever."

* * *

~Olivia's POV~

The moment we arrived in the clearing, I sat down in a sunny spot on the pebbles and watched as Lindsay trained with Mimi. The Akatsuki milled around, exploring the vicinity. Esder and Jess started a splash war, which Emma and Tia joined in enthusiastically.

After a while, Sasori came and sat down next to me. I smiled at him and he nodded.

"I've been curious for a while now," I began, "How does your puppetry work?"

He blinked. "Why do you want to know?"

I shrugged. "Just curious. You and Deidara argue all the time, so I want to know why you think art is eternal."

He watched me for a while longer before extending his hand. Blue threads shot out from his fingers, attaching themselves to Deidara.

"What the…? Hey, Danna! What are you doing, hmm?" Bewilderment was obvious in his voice.

Sasori didn't say anything. Instead, he answered by making Deidara do back flips and chase Tobi.

Tobi ran around, screaming, "Deidara-senpai, Tobi is a good boy! Don't hurt Tobi!"

Deidara was yelling, "Danna! What did I do, hmm?"

Everyone else was pretty much laughing their heads off at the display of puppetry.

A few minutes later, Sasori finally decided to release Deidara, who pouted and went to kill Tobi to vent his anger (which failed, of course).

"How do you make your puppets?" I asked, "I don't think you use Deidara as a human puppet every time."

Sasori's head drooped slightly. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Umm…yes?"

"You don't sound so sure."

I took a deep breath and said as confidently as I could, "Yes, I want to know!"

Sasori smirked in amusement. "I make them out of people."

"…"

"…"

"Could you repeat that? A little slower?"

He rolled his eyes. "I make them out of people," he repeated more slowly.

"Why?"

"Because human puppets retain the person's chakra nature and abilities whereas wooden puppets do not."

"So human puppets are stronger than regular puppets?"

"You could say it that way." He glanced at me through the corner of his eyes. "Are you afraid?"

"A little, yes," I admitted, "But I was expecting something like that, you being an S-ranked criminal and all. What would really scare me is you telling me that an angel gave you those puppets."

The corner of his mouth twitched and he became completely serious again. "Aren't you afraid that I'll turn you into a part of my collection?"

I sighed. "Yeah. I can't outrun you or beat you in a fight, so if you do decide to turn me into a puppet, I'm screwed."

I turned my head to look at him. "But I think if you were going to turn me into a puppet, you would have done so already. So I'm not as scared."

Sasori sighed. "I didn't use human puppets at first. Granny Chiyo taught me how to be a Puppet Master. I became known as a genius, and created puppets that could eliminate the Puppet Master's weakness. But I wasn't satisfied. I wanted to create works that could last forever and become known as art. So I began experimenting on humans. Which succeeded, of course," he added dryly.

"What about your parents?" His eyes hardened and he glared at the ground.

"Dead. I was not even five years old when they were both killed by enemies."

I nodded slowly. "I think I can understand. Since your parents died when you were very young, you never experienced the love that a parent could give. You had your grandmother, but she couldn't replace your deceased parents. Seeing other kids with parents, you started feeling alone because they had something you didn't. The loneliness made you start doing things that would get you to be noticed, thus the beginning of the human puppets. Am I right?"

He blinked in surprise. "You're good at guessing a person's behavior."

I grinned and then remembered something. "Hey, Sasori. Do you see that stone over there?" I pointed to the opposite bank where I could see a white stone amid all the other pebbles.

"There are tons of stones," he replied, looking slightly confused, "Which one are you talking about?"

"The white one right there," I said, leaning over a little and keeping my finger up, "The one that is surrounded by a circle of gray ones."

He frowned. "I don't see it," he said with a hint of impatience.

I let my arm drop. "I heard this story once about a girl who was always ignored. Nobody spoke to her or even acknowledged her existence. One day in school, a speaker came to talk to her class. He asked, 'Which ability would you rather have: the power to become invisible or the power to fly?' The girl raised her hand and said, 'You don't need the power to become invisible in order to be invisible.'"

"And what does that have to do with me?" Sasori questioned.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I just feel like you can somewhat relate to the story." I got up, kicked off my shoes and rolled up my pants. The water was icy cold when I stepped into it, but I waded to the opposite side, bent down, and picked up the stone I was talking about.

I looked back across the stream at the redhead and smiled. "The stone was right here, by the way." I threw it to him.

* * *

~Emma's POV~

"Guys, let's go back now!" Sendy pleaded. Luckily for her, the rest of us agreed, so we gathered around the edge of the clearing, ready to go back.

"Where's Lindsay?" Olivia asked, walking up with Sasori behind her.

"She left a long time ago, 'Liv. Did you seriously just notice?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Really? Where did she go?"

"Sarah Cheng called her to ask if she was free to practice a duet for the orchestra concert that's in a month," Sendy explained.

"Of course, all this happened when you and Sasori were having your lover's chat," Mimi added, eyes sparkling mischievously.

"We were not!" Olivia hissed as Sasori glared at Mimi.

"Yeah, yeah. Suuuure…" Mimi said skeptically.

Tia started singing, "Olivia and Sasori, sitting in a tree…!"

Olivia lunged for Tia's throat. Tia screamed and started running, shouting, "Oh, my God! I'm gonna die! Olivia, pourquoi es-tu si violent?" (1)

"Help! Dying of laughter here!" I gasped, holding my stomach.

* * *

**Next time on **_**Mind of the Heart: Jealousy**_

"Where were you? I thought you were kidnapped or something!"

"I meant to discuss this with you yesterday but I forgot."

"You three, we have orchestra now so come on."

"He's still alive? I hoped that a tree fell on him when the hurricane came by."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING ABOUT TODAY BEING YOUR BIRTHDAY?"

* * *

_**I need more things to talk about on the author's notes. I mean, I look at other people's author's notes and they're like, a long paragraph while mine is only two sentences. I think I'll start doing Question of the Chapter (QOTC) and trivia for the story's characters, like below.**_

_**Trivia: Mimi is addicted to a movie called Nikita.**_

_**QOTC: Who is your favorite Akatsuki member(s)? Give a reason why if you want.**_

_**AOTC: I have five favorites. Itachi, Sasori, Deidara, Pein, and Konan. Konan's pretty, I like Pein's hair, Deidara is hilarious when he's angry at Tobi, Sasori's just plain cool, and Itachi is wickedly strong.**_

_**REVIEW AND PARTICIPATE IN THE POLL, PEOPLE!**_


	20. IT'S SASORI'S BIRTHDAY!

_**Poll. You have til the 13**__**th**__**.**_

-0-

November 8th

~Olivia's POV~

Okay, I was definitely not used to getting up early anymore. How I knew? One, I overslept. Two, Emma _and _Konan had to shake me to wake me up. And three, most of the other Akatsuki members were eating breakfast when I finally ended up downstairs. Hell, even Hidan was up!

I stuffed a pancake in my mouth, chewing as I walked around to do some last minute packing. Emma came down the stairs, rubbing at her cheek.

"Hey, 'Liv? Do I have a black line on my cheek?" she asked, moving her hand.

I narrowed my eyes, scanning her face. Sure enough, there was a tiny line about one millimeter long. I nodded.

She sighed. "I was writing a note to myself last night and accidentally drew on my cheek," she explained, "Is it really noticeable?"

"No," I reassured her, swallowing my pancake.

"Okay then." She headed to the kitchen, but suddenly turned back. "Have you seen Lindsay this morning?"

"You share a room with her, you should have seen her."

"She wasn't in the house when I woke up."

I blinked. "Are you sure?"

She flashed me a look that said 'do I look senile to you?' "Her backpack was gone, so I assumed that she went to school. But it still doesn't mean anything."

"She would have told us if she had to go early. Could have left a note or something."

"I didn't see any notes."

"Neither did I."

"…"

"…"

"OMG! SHE'S BEEN KIDNAPPED!" (Emma)

"FUCK! I SWEAR I'LL MURDER WHOEVER DID IT!" (Me)

"I'd rather not ask what's going on," Kisame said uneasily, watching me and Emma freak out like the crazy girls we are. Most of the Akatsuki gave slightly apprehensive murmurs of agreement.

* * *

"I can't believe you guys!" I moaned, head in my hands as I sat in homeroom, "Linz is missing and you're just telling me to calm down?"

"You don't know for sure that she's kidnapped," Sasori replied calmly, arms crossed in front of his chest.

"But there was no message telling us where she went!" Emma argued, pausing in her pacing, "What if she…?" She froze and stared at me with wide eyes. "Oh, my God."

I understood what she was talking about. My breath hitched and I stood up, knocking my chair over. "Shit."

"What, hmm?" Deidara looked from me to Emma with an edgy look in his eyes. Itachi's eyes narrowed. I'm not gonna tell you what Tobi's doing cuz that would just ruin the mood.

"I'll be back," I said shortly, walking as fast I could to the doorway of Mr. Lisella's room (A/N: Lisella is the homeroom teacher.).

Just as I reached the doorway, Lindsay appeared and we walked right into each other, bumping heads. Even worse, she was holding a cup of hot coffee, and yeah, you know what happened.

For a couple seconds, we both just stood there in shock with coffee dripping from our hair and running down our faces.

Lindsay finally broke the silence with a simple, "Ow."

Peeranat (you know, Lindsay's "brother") came in soon after. He cast one glance at us and doubled over laughing.

"Hahahahahahaha!" He yanked playfully on Lindsay's wet hair, "You look so funny!"

Unfortunately, he didn't notice me reaching for the cup of coffee that was in Lindsay's hand.

"Hey," I said monotonously, holding the cup ready.

"Huh?" Peeranat turned around. Big mistake.

Ten seconds later, Peeranat was running for the bathroom so he could hide himself from the wrath of the boiling hot coffee.

I put the cup back in Lindsay's hand. She hadn't really moved at all except turning her head to watch her "brother" run away.

"So anyway…" I started.

"WHERE WERE YOU? I THOUGHT YOU HAD BEEN KIDNAPPED OR SOMETHING!" I shouted, reaching out to grab her shoulders so I could shake her senseless.

Linz held the cup in front of her threateningly. "There's still some hot coffee in this, you know…"

I dropped my hands to put them on my hips instead. "Well?" I demanded.

"I had morning orchestra," she stated evenly and looked a little confused, "Didn't you see my note?"

"What note?"

"I left a note on the kitchen table before I left."

"None of us saw a note."

Lindsay frowned before face-palming. "Of course. Hidan."

"What about him?"

"He probably got rid of the note as a practical joke or something to make you guys freak out," Lindsay sighed, placing her coffee cup on a desk.

"He is in big trouble…" I snarled, already thinking of ways to cause the immortal zealot as much pain as possible.

Lindsay gave a small puff of laughter, suddenly reminding me of Emma's and my other fear.

I hugged her. Hard. She seemed a bit taken aback but didn't say anything.

"Next time, make sure that either Emma or I know where you are," I told her softly, "We thought you were…were…going through _that _again."

"I see," she replied, patting me on the back, "I'm sorry. You don't have to worry so much though."

"We're best friends. We're supposed to worry," Emma declared, joining us in the hug. Tobi dashed up and hugged us as well. In the background, we could hear Deidara ask, "What the hell, hmm?"

I flipped him the bird.

Out of nowhere, the bell rang. Lindsay shrieked in surprise and flung her coffee cup in the air, showering the four of us with the remainder of the drink.

"What is this? Shower Everyone with Coffee Day?" I grumbled, blinking coffee out of my eyes.

"Sorry about that," Lindsay apologized, retrieving the cup and tossing it in the recycling.

"What happened in here?" Mr. Lisella had just entered the room, staring in shock at the coffee stains on the floor.

"Er, a really complicated scenario that isn't exactly explainable?" Emma offered.

-0-

~Lindsay's POV~

"Olivia, can I ask you something?" I asked while taking notes from the World History textbook.

"Go ahead." Olivia flipped a page in her book.

"I meant to discuss this with you yesterday, but I forgot."

"And what is 'this'?"

"Are you dating Firehead?"

"…Firehead?"

"Sasori."

"What about Sasori?"

"Are you dating him?"

She turned her head slowly to look at me. "_What?"_

"Mimi, Tia, and Sendy told me that you had a lover's chat with him two days ago, when we went to the woods."

"They're _dead_," she snarled, curling her hands into fists.

"Reacting like that will only encourage the gossip," I warned, erasing an error on my paper.

She huffed in response.

"So I take it you're not dating Sasori?"

"Why would I date him?" She stabbed at her textbook with her pencil.

"I just wanted to clarify," I wrote down the dates of the Boxer Rebellion, "Not that I would object if you were going out with him…"

"I'm NOT!" she snapped.

"Chill, man!" I shouted back, "I said I was only clarifying!"

"Did you just call me man?"

I rolled my eyes. "Allow me to rephrase then. Chill, woman! I said I was only clarifying!"

She glared at me, but went back to her work. Emma poked her head out from under her desk. "Are you guys done arguing?"

Yeah, Emma was the unlucky one who sat between me and Olivia, so she always suffered when the two of us argued. Poor her.

-0-

~Emma's POV~

"I'll go put the sculpting supplies away. You can clean the table," I told Deidara.

"Sure, hmm," he replied, crumpling up the clay-covered newspaper. Tossing it in the garbage, he then picked up our eagle sculpture and carried it to the storage room.

I walked to the other side of the room, where all the sculpting tools were kept. I sorted through the tools and placed them all back in their designated baskets (after washing them, of course). The bell for lunch rang just as I placed the last carving knife in the basket. I quickly dried my hands, grabbed my backpack, and headed to lunch with Deidara.

* * *

"Look out below!" Esder yelled, flinging a tator tot to some random place in the cafeteria and quickly looking innocent when people turned to stare.

"Why do you like doing that so much?" Mimi asked, curling one arm around her food in case Esder decided to try and steal something.

"It's fun," Esder answered. She drained her water bottle, put the cap back on, and began twisting it. Glancing around, she smirked when she saw her victim.

Olivia was reading a novel, completely unaware to Esder's actions. That is, until a bottle cap hit her in the face. "What the fuck?" she yelped, falling out of her chair with a loud crash.

The whole table burst out laughing. Mimi laughed so hard that she fell out of her chair. Esder took the chance to steal a couple of tator tots off her tray. Jess was practically snorting. Lindsay choked on her chocolate milk. I thumped her on the back as we both laughed. Tia covered her mouth to mask her giggles.

"Ahem." Someone cleared their throat quietly, sobering up the table immediately.

An Asian girl stood behind Esder. "You three, we have orchestra now so come on," she pointed to Lindsay, Tia, and Esder.

"Sarah!" Tia shouted, hugging the girl to death.

"We do?" Lindsay asked, bewildered.

"Yes," Sarah answered, "I find it hard to believe that Sendy remembered and you didn't, Linz."

Lindsay rolled her eyes and rose. "Oh, shut up."

"No, Lindsay! Don't go!" I cried, grabbing her wrist in an iron-grip.

"You're a big girl, Emma. You can't have someone watching you all the time," Lindsay joked, tugging her arm out of my grip, "On the other hand, Sarah is a little girl and needs to be chaperoned."

Sarah gave Lindsay a glare. "We're having a bow fight when we get to Feng's room."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Lindsay waved her hand, "See you guys later."

Tia followed and Esder winked at Mimi before leaving as well. Mimi blinked and looked at her tray.

3…

2…

1…

"GIMME BACK MY TATOR TOTS YOU LITTLE FUCKER!"

"I already ate them!" Esder screamed, running out of the lunch room as fast as she could.

-0-

~Jess's POV~

"I'm bored," I whined, tugging on Mimi's sleeve.

She gave a dark look. "Keep your fucking hands off, bitch."

I gulped and scooted as far away from her as possible. Looks like she was still angry from what happened five minutes ago.

"He's still alive?" Olivia suddenly hissed, "I hoped that a tree fell on him when the hurricane came by."

We all turned to see Gary and his cronies walking into the cafeteria, looking as arrogant as usual.

"I can go mummify him, if you want," Mimi offered, picking up a spoon, a knife, and a fork.

"Getting involved with the cops would be too troublesome," Olivia objected reluctantly.

"I have an idea!" Emma said, "How about Mimi becomes an assassin when she grows up, and Olivia can hire her to assassinate Gary?"

There was a pause. "I like that idea," Olivia concluded.

"Tobi doesn't get it."

I sighed. "Tobi, assassinate means to kill someone secretly. What's not to get?"

"Tobi knows what assassinate means."

"Oh, ok. Good," I pretended to breathe a sigh of relief.

"What don't you get?" Emma asked.

"Why does everyone hate Gary so much?"

Us girls looked at Olivia, raising our eyebrows. She just shrugged and put her elbows on the table.

"Okay, Tobi. You see," Mimi began, "Gary asked Olivia to go out with him in 7th grade. For a year, everything was fine and Olivia was as slap-happy as could be."

Olivia wrinkled her nose. "Don't use 'slap-happy,' Mimi. It makes me sound drunk."

"Whatever." Mimi waved her hand, "So at the end of 8th grade, Olivia found out that Gary was only using her to prove that he could get any girl he wanted to be his girlfriend."

Tobi tilted his head to one side. "Is that wrong?"

"Fuck yes, it's wrong," Emma snapped, completely out of character. "Sorry," she coughed awkwardly when everyone stared.

"So yeah, they broke up. Olivia was furious and nobody, except the rest of our little gang, dared to speak to her for a month," I picked up the story, "Mimi and Lindsay both threatened Gary, not that he cared. In fact, all of us did something to get revenge on him. Emma graffitied his house, I put embarrassing stuff about him all over the school, Tia and Sendy filled his locker with shaving cream, and Esder tricked the secretary into calling Gary a liar over the intercom."

"Did you get caught?" Sasori asked, a little disbelievingly.

"Mimi and I did," I answered, "Mimi got caught because she started yelling some very violent stuff in the middle of class, and the principal caught me taping up the pieces of paper."

"And…?" Deidara asked eagerly.

"Mimi got detention for two days. I got detention for a month," I reminisced.

"Yeah, well, Olivia was still really depressed after all that, but there was still something that cheered her up," Mimi smirked, "Care to guess what it was?"

"Oh, just tell us, hmm!"

"It was my birthday," Emma said, grinning.

-0-

~Sasori's POV~

"Your birthday?" Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, one of Olivia's favorite things to do is throw a birthday party," Emma leaned back in her chair, "The idea of throwing a birthday party cheers her up no matter how depressed she is." We all looked at Olivia, who had her head on the table.

Suddenly, the brat said in a loud voice, "You know, Danna, isn't today your birthday?"

"What?" I asked before Olivia's head snapped up and she stared at me.

Deidara acted confused. "Your birthday is November 8th, isn't it?"

Emma pushed her chair away from the table and put her hands over her ears, smirking. Olivia lunged across the table, grabbing my shoulders and shouting, "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING ABOUT TODAY BEING YOUR BIRTHDAY?"

My ninja instincts kicked in and I flung her away from me. She landed heavily on her back, and my heart lurched. Hopefully, I didn't hurt her. Before I could make sure she was alright, she jumped up, pumping her fist, "Woohoo! A birthday to celebrate! I gotta go tell the others the good news!" She dashed out of the cafeteria as fast as she could.

I turned to the blonde brat, who was grinning. "I'll kill you, brat," I whispered.

He laughed. "That's what you always say, Danna. You never succeeded."

* * *

**Next time on **_**Mind of the Heart: Jealousy…**_

"A birthday party? Screw orchestra, I'm going with you guys!"

"What color balloons do you want?"

"Get green balloons, too!"

"I want all of your birthdays, or else!"

"Despite how he acts, he actually really likes candy, hmm."

* * *

_**Yay, another chapter done! Took 21 pages of Microsoft Word. My chapters are usually only about 10 pages. This is really great!**_

_**Go vote on the poll, you have til the 13**__**th**__**, blah, blah, blah.**_

_**Trivia: Lindsay doesn't like the colors of gray, brown, maroon, and any other shades of the three colors.**_

_**QOTC: Who's your favorite non-Akatsuki character? (If you're in the story, you cannot answer.)**_

_**AOTC: I'm in the story, so yeah. I can't answer this question…**_

_**REVIEW!**_


	21. Getting the Birthday Stuff

_**Poll has been closed. Sorry if you didn't get to vote.**_

_**There is a new poll, though. It's for a new story that I'm working on. Please take the time and cast your vote on that one!**_

* * *

~Jess's POV~

"Remind me why we're waiting here again," I mumbled, scuffing the ground with my foot.

Emma sighed. "Because Olivia was pretty much kicked out of the orchestra room by Feng for trying to tell Lindsay, Sendy, Esder, and Tia about Sasori's birthday."

"And those four have after school orchestra today as well, but they agreed to chat with us for a bit before it starts," Mimi added, "Here comes Esder."

Said person skidded to a halt in front of Sasori and started shaking him. "WHY YOU NO TELL US IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY?" Esder screamed, "DO YOU KNOW HOW IMPORTANT BIRTHDAYS ARE? THEY ARE DAYS THAT PROVE YOUR PARENTS FUCKED EACH OTHER! WITHOUT THAT DAY, YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN!"

Poor Sasori wasn't going to get any help 'cause all of us pretty much died from laughter.

"Esder! I could hear you shouting from all the way in the orchestra room," Lindsay snapped as she walked towards our little group, "And you better keep things appropriate when we go buy the cake and balloons."

"But Liiiiiinz," Esder whined, "Don't you agree that birthdays…?"

"Yes, I know that they are the days that are approximately nine months after your parents have intercourse!" Lindsay interrupted, "You told me that at least fifty times for the past six years!"

Emma handed Lindsay a twenty dollar bill. Lindsay blinked and said, "I already have all the money."

"How?" Mimi asked, her money half-way out of her pocket.

"Olivia stole your wallets when you weren't looking," Lindsay explained as Sendy and Tia walked up.

"How much?" Emma, Mimi, and I asked, eyeing Olivia suspiciously.

"Twenty dollars."

"Oh, okay. That's fine." I stuffed my money back into my backpack.

"Hey, guys," Peeranat appeared and slung an arm around Lindsay's shoulders, "Hello." He greeted Deidara, Tobi, Itachi, and Sasori (who still looked slightly shaken, btw).

"Hi! Tobi is a good boy!" Tobi waved his arms excitedly.

Peeranat blinked and grinned, although it looked more like a grimace. "So, what's up?" he asked, trying to make small talk.

"You know Feng will find you fairly quickly if you stay here," Lindsay said, glancing down the hall.

"Shush," Peeranat turned him and Linz around so that his back was to the hallway, "Pretend I'm someone else. What are you doing this afternoon?"

"We're celebrating Sasori's birthday," Lindsay sighed, gesturing to the redhead.

Peeranat gasped. "A birthday party? Screw orchestra; I'm going with you guys!"

"Sure!" Lindsay's smile was as false as counterfeit money, "Twenty dollars!" She held out her hand. Peeranat looked at it before taking his arm off her shoulders and walking away.

"That is how you deal with him," Lindsay said matter-of-factly, crossing her arms. A couple of us chuckled. Suddenly, a new voice rang across the hall.

"You four! Hurry up! Rehearsal's starting!"

"Crap," Lindsay muttered before turning to see the orchestra director, Ms. Hsin-Ting Feng, marching towards us with an annoyed expression on her face.

"Have any of you seen Peeranat?" Ms. Feng asked, "That little booger drank my coffee!"

"Oh, yeah. He went that way." Lindsay pointed down another hallway, "I'll help you find him. He'll probably run when he sees you, and you're too old to chase him."

"I wanna help too!" Esder, Tia, and Sendy all said at the same time.

"Ugh. Fine," Ms. Feng muttered.

"We'll get the cake and stuff. Don't worry!" Tia called as the five left.

"For some reason, that makes me very worried," Mimi said.

"Whatever. Let's go," Olivia said at the same time a scream rang through the halls.

"THERE HE IS!"

"NO!"

A couple seconds later, Peeranat came dashing through main hallway with Tia on his heels. The two disappeared at the corner. After they disappeared, Lindsay came walking past. She looked at us, held up a hand, and said, "We're handling it."

"Uhh…okay?" Mimi said uncertainly as Lindsay continued to stroll calmly around the corner.

~0~

~Emma's POV~

At around 4:45, the wall phone rang. Since I was sitting right next to it, I picked up.

"Wolansky residence."

"I know!" Lindsay shouted. I gave the phone a dubious glance.

"What's wrong?"

"I just want to know if there's a specific color that Sasori wants for the balloons." Lindsay sounded very exasperated.

"Uhh…hang on a moment." I held the phone away from my ear, "Hey, Sas! What color balloons do you want?"

Sasori came downstairs. "Sas?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

I ignored his question. "What color balloons do you want?"

He shrugged and turned away. "I don't care."

I stared at him for a few seconds before lifting the phone back to my mouth. "He wants red to match his hair."

"All right," Lindsay said. In the background, I could hear Tia saying, "Esder, stop humping the beef jerkies!"

I nearly dropped the phone. "What in the world is going on over there, Linz?" I shouted, making more people trickle into the kitchen to listen to what I was saying.

Lindsay sighed. "Tia's just exaggerating. Esder actually tripped over her own feet and fell into the shelf with the beef jerkies."

"Oh, okay," I said, pushing the speaker button. Now, Lindsay's voice would come loud and clear.

"And also, can you ask the Akatsuki for their birthdays? We might have missed another one," Lindsay requested.

I turned to the people gathered in my kitchen. Hidan immediately pointed to Kakuzu, who gave him a death glare.

"The money bastard's fucking birthday is August 15th," the Jashinist informed me.

"Cool," I said and pointed to Kakuzu, "What's your favorite color?"

"Green," he answered, "It's the color of money."

"Get green balloons, too," I told Lindsay.

"I know," she answered, "Hang on. I need to go see what Esder's doing to the bananas."

There was the sound of shuffling and we could hear Lindsay saying, "Esder, what are you…?"

There was a silence and everyone jumped when Lindsay started shouting, "WHY THE SNICKERDOODLE SHIT-FUCK ARE YOU STUFFING THE BANANAS INTO CONDOMS?"

Half the kitchen collapsed in laughter while the other half was frozen in shock. Lindsay continued to yell at Esder, "WHY ARE YOU EVEN TOUCHING CONDOMS? THIS IS PUBLIC! I DON'T GIVE A FLYING RAT-CRAP IF YOU DO YOUR CRAZY-ASS THINGS WHEN YOU'RE ALONE, BUT WHEN IN THE PRESENCE OF OTHER PEOPLE, YOU MUST CONTROL YOURSELF! WHAT MAKES THIS WORSE IS THAT YOU ALMOST CONVINCED SENDY TO PUT THE DEFILED BANANA IN HER MOUTH! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

Mimi and Hidan were practically choking on their own spit while Deidara rolled around on the floor, gasping for breath. Kisame was pretty much in the same condition as Deidara but standing. Olivia was banging her fist on the table, laughing her lungs out. Jess had her ears covered, but she was still laughing. I struggled to keep my own laughter under control. Everyone else was pretty much shocked into unmoving statues.

"Emma?" Lindsay asked. I held back on my giggles long enough to answer.

"Yeah?"

"I gotta go now. Don't forget to get all the birthdays."

"Okay." There was a click, signaling that Lindsay had hung up.

I turned back to the Akatsuki and put on a serious face. "Right. I want all of your birthdays, or else!" My voice cracked on the last word and I ended up on the floor, laughing my head off at Esder's dirty deed.

~0~

~Deidara's POV~

Oh, my Kami. That was so hilarious! I almost suffocated from oxygen depletion.

As I was ready to leave the kitchen, the wall phone rang again. I picked up this time and heard Tia ask, "Hello?"

"What's up, hmm?"

"Is that Deidara?"

"Yeah."

"Ok. We want to know what Sasori likes. We're trying to find birthday presents for him, but we don't want to buy anything he doesn't like."

"Puppets."

"Already got that."

"Killing people, hmm."

"A noun, please."

"Candy."

There was a slight pause on the other side. "Really?" Tia asked, "Sasori likes candy? But he acts so indifferent and cold all the time…"

"Despite how he acts, he actually really likes candy, hmm."

"Well, I'll take your word for it," she said, "Thanks, blondie."

"No problem, hmm," I answered as she hung up. Putting the phone back into the wall, I headed upstairs to where Sasori-no-Danna was carving wood.

"Hey, Danna," I said, leaning on the doorway.

"What do you want, brat?" he asked without looking up.

"Happy birthday."

He froze and his eyes flicked to me. There was a long and slightly uncomfortable silence, and then he said, "Thanks…Deidara."

* * *

**Next Time on _Mind of the Heart: Jealousy_**

"TAKE THAT, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"

"It's okay. We got two just in case."

"Are we gonna sing the Happy Birthday Song?"

"Let's do Janus by Boyfriend!"

"Jeans and white shirt, guys. Like when we considered ourselves a 'gang'."

* * *

_**Go vote on the poll, please!**_

_**Trivia: The girls listed from oldest to youngest: Tia, Jess, Sendy, Mimi, Olivia, Lindsay, Esder, and Emma.**_

_**QOTC: What is your favorite chakra element (fire, water, lightning, earth, or wind)?**_

_**AOTC: Mine is wind because I can use it to fly! :D**_

_**REVIEW!**_


	22. IMPORTANT!

_**Attention, all!**_

_**Due to the ridiculously large amount of schoolwork/homework I have and my desire to do well in my classes, I will NOT be updating my stories again until June. I will still be writing when I have free time, but I won't be uploading any chapters until school lets out.**_

_**Sorry to disappoint, but if I don't do well in school, I may never update again. It's better this way, trust me.**_

_**Thanks! ~Itachi-21**_


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